


As the World Progresses

by AKBruce



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt Felicity Smoak, Hurt/Comfort, Metahumans, POV Felicity Smoak, past Felicity Smoak/Cooper Seldon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:56:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22539730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKBruce/pseuds/AKBruce
Summary: Felicity Smoak is done with her days as the Vigilante "Overwatch" after her partner is murdered. She is offered a job at Queen Consolidated in Starling City and takes it, deciding to start a new life as a normal, average, I.T. girl. Hiding her metahuman ability to communicate with computers and being completely normal will be easy, right? It is, until she finds herself pulled into a life she didn't expect by a hooded figure who has information on the people who murdered her old partner and what they are planning. Can she leave her old life behind, and move on, or realise she can still be her true self, even as the world progresses?
Relationships: Cooper Seldon/Felicity Smoak, John Diggle & Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Sara Lance & Felicity Smoak
Comments: 101
Kudos: 94





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I know I promised I'd finish my other fic before starting a new one but I had to because once this idea came to me I started writing and couldn't stop. On my other fic I asked for prompts for a new fic and someone suggested metahumans, and I loved the idea, so thank you! This is going to be a bit off canon as I'm bringing to life some characters I love and leaving out events past season 3 because... I like my original team arrow:)   
> This is gonna be all Felicity POV and Felicity centric because she is my fave, ever.   
> I don't own Arrow, if only I had thought of it myself, alas.

Chapter I

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

_ She heard Police yelling from across the hall, and looked up, seeing a few men running towards her with guns raised. Realizing she would have to leave Cooper behind, she gently placed him back on the chair, grabbed her tablet, and flung her body out the closest, still intact window, glass shattering all around her. _

Felicity awoke with a start. She was used to it by now, as the memory loved to pop up in her dream consistently, but she still hated the drop in her stomach that occured right when she began the fall. Her alarm was buzzing next to her, and she growled, the alarm immediately stopping. She almost felt bad for her clock, it always got the worst sides of her.

Today was her first day as a normal, average, IT girl at Queen Consolidated. She didn’t know much about the company, but it was normal, and that’s all that mattered to her. She didn’t know much about the city, either. She’d been to LA once as a trip with her mom and whatever man was paying the bills at the time, but that was the only place on the West Coast she’d been. She’d grown up in Las Vegas, but the desert weather hadn’t felt like the west coast at all, and it was a place she never planned on returning to. 

She stretched and then stood, walking to the bathroom to primp herself up for the day. Her hair was messy, and she still did a double take every time her reflection stared back at her. She’d only had the bleached blonde hair for a week or so, and she still hadn’t gotten used to it. She’d removed the tattoo on her collarbone which had hurt like hell, and she had taken all her piercings out. It was like a clean slate, minus the tiny almost unnoticeable holes all over her ears and face. 

She did her business and then hopped into the shower, not wanting to look unkept or smell bad on her first day at the new company. This new Felicity Smoak was nerdy in a girly way, something she’d have to practice getting used to. Plus, this Felicity was not a metahuman. She was just extremely tech savvy, like Cooper had been. Her throat caught at the thought of him, as only one image appeared in her head when she thought of him, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. Swallowing down her puke, she shivered, the water in the shower suddenly cold. 

Turn the knob and grabbing her towel, Felicity went over all the digging she had done about the company. The CEO was Moira Queen, Robert Queen’s widow. It had been Robert Queen’s business, passed down from generations of Queen’s apparently. Robert Queen had died in a shipwreck, that he was in with his son. His son had been thought to be dead, but he had just appeared a few weeks ago apparently, out of nowhere, after having been gone for five years. Felicity found it odd, but people had secrets, especially the wealthy. 

Brushing her teeth and touching up her face with some light makeup, Felicity hoped she didn’t have to meet any of those high ups at the company. She’d done research, some illegal parts, as she normally did, to make sure the company wasn’t a scam, and it wasn’t, but she still didn’t like the idea of working for a big company like that. Apparently they’d had cases of unfair layoffs and poor employee treatment in the past. Companies that did things like that were exactly the type of people she’d take down with Overwatch. 

She winced, untangling the knots in her hair, frustrated by the strands. If she did meet any of those prestigious rich people she didn’t think she could hold herself back from ripping off on them. But, as the new Felicity Smoak, she’d have to find a way, as the new Felicity Smoak was supposed to be quiet and passive, indifferent to the bad in the world. She’d find a way to be like that. It would be best for her. 

Making her way to the small closet in the apartment that she’d been renting for the past week, Felicity grabbed out a modest pencil skirt, button down and blazer, going for something that would look like everyone else. She definitely didn’t want to stand out, and she’d decided she was okay with that. After putting the clothes on, she observed herself in the bathroom mirror, and deemed herself presentable. She could do this.  ****

#  \- 🖮 -

She’d been waiting in the lobby for almost 10 minutes. She was scared she might’ve been mislead and actually hadn’t been hired. She alerted the front desk why she was there and for what purpose, and they’d told her to have a seat, so there she sat, contemplating whether she should just get up and leave or stay and actually do the job. Just as she thought maybe she should drop the job, a strong and tall girl with dirty-blonde hair exited the lift and scanned the lobby. When her eyes met Felicity’s her face lit up and she headed towards Felicity. Sighing, Felicity stood, preparing herself. 

“Hey. You must be the new IT girl, Felicity Smoak?” The woman asked, and Felicity nodded, glancing at the extended arm in front of her for what she hoped wasn’t too long. She reached out, shaking the hand, and put on what she hoped was a dazzling smile. The woman laughed. “It’s okay, I was nervous on my first day too. Big, tall, filled to the brim with people buildings can seem very scary.”

Felicity cringed inwardly. Obviously she needed to work on pleasant facial expressions. This quiet, passive thing was already doing her no favors. As the woman moved towards the lift, Felicity caught up next to her, and decided she had to say something. 

“Thanks. Also, the idea of so many people. Rich people, especially at the top. Which would probably put less wealthy people at the bottom. Oh, god, I didn’t mean that in a bad way! I mean like, that’s how businesses work… most of the time… I think?” Felicity slammed her mouth shut. Shit. Cooper would be laughing his ass off at her. 

The woman laughed, thankfully, and pressed the button for the lift. It was a soft laugh, but it seemed really. Her voice was low and sort of scratchy, in a very pretty way. It made Felicity think of a warrior. “You’re cute. You won’t find it hard to get along with people here,” The woman said, and Felicity assumed she met her colleagues, since she  _ had _ just insulted the rich people who ran the business. Overwatch was damn hard to get rid of. “I’m Sara, by the way.” 

“Nice to meet you Sara. I’m Felicity. But, you already know that,” Felicity said, genuinely meaning it. The girl seemed like she definitely wasn’t out to get Felicity. At least not yet. Though Felicity hadn’t worked at any companies this large while she was at MIT or before then, she knew that there were always co-workers out for blood. 

The button dinged and the lift doors opened, Felicity stepping in behind Sara. “So, I guess I’ll run you down with the basics and if you have any questions you can ask me afterwards. I’ve never hired anyone for IT before, though, so I don’t know how much I can answer, but I can try,” Sara explained, and Felicity nodded in reply. She didn’t feel like asking many questions anyway. Best to stay in the shadows, or something like that. 

“I’m sure during your interview what the company does was explained so I’m going to focus on logistics. Your schedule is decided by your boss, aka the manager of IT. If you have any complaints about it, come see HR. I’m one of the assistant managers there. QC’s goal is to provide a family-like environment. We cover health-care for almost all employees, and you are one. You’ll get paid at the end of every month. Is there anything else you’d like to know about the technical side?” Sara asked, and Felicity’s eyes slid from her to the walls of the lift. 

“No, that all sounds great,” Felicity confirmed, though she was holding in a guffaw. Ironic how Sara had to say almost all employees. Felicity could put 20 bucks on some of the extremely important people like janitorial staff not getting the lovely benefit. She held back her jab, biting her lip, giving allowance for Sara to continue. 

“As for I.T., you can be ready to be fixing tech for employees who have troubles, making sure the systems in the building are working, and all that fun technology stuff. Your manager can probably give you a better list of work than what I can, so you may ask them as well as you like,” Sara explained. 

The lift came to a stop, and the doors opened, Sara stepping out and Felicity following. She hadn’t been an I.T. girl before, but she was sure she could pick it up easily. When computers can read your emotions as if they were code, they pretty much do exactly what you say. But, that was something she was going to hide. Which would be easy. Definitely. 

“This is floor 19, I.T.’s on this floor, and this is where your office will be. There’s also a map of the building around every corner,” Sara explained, turning and looking to Felicity, who had froze. “Are you ok? I know it’s a lot to take in,” Sara said, sounding very genuine with her concern. Felicity had hidden her ability her whole life. This wouldn’t be any different, right? Hell, why did she choose a tech job? Should’ve just been a waitress like her mom. Then no one would suspect her. “Felicity?” Sara said, saying Felicity’s name as a question.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, it’s just, this is what I got my degree to prepare for, so it’s crazy that it’s actually happening. I mean, I didn’t get my degree to just be a low I.T. girl, obviously I want to be more, but… sorry, nerves. What I mean is, I’m ready,” Felicity sputtered out. It’s like she got rid of her goth look and her pre-college babble was like ‘hey, am I allowed to come back now?’ 

“Hey, if you need anything, you can always come visit H.R. I mean it, and I totally don’t say that to everyone, trust me. Plus, I know all the best food places in Starling, which makes me a go-to tour guide for any new person in town,” Sara reassured, and Felicity found it in her to smile. This girl who she’d just met, was offering her friendship, and that definitely was not in her job description. Or was it, Felicity didn’t know how H.R. contracts worked.

They got to a hall labeled I.T. Cubicles, and Sara opened the door, walking through the cubicles towards the back on the big room. “The manager’s offices and conference room are back here,” Sara explained, Felicity looking down at every cubicle, though most people paid her no attention. She double checked her powers to make sure she was holding them back, and continued on behind Sara. 

Reaching a brown door, Sara knocked, and Felicity stepped next to Sara, slightly scared. The door opened, revealing a tall, broad man with a fancy brown haircut and a nerd-looking style. He opened the door fully and montioned for them to come in, Sara and Felicity stepping into the small room. There was a window, looking out on Starling, but Felicity didn’t look for long, not needing her fear of heights awakened on her first day. 

“Hi, you must be Felicity. I’m Ray Palmer, the I.T. general manager,” The man, Ray, said, holding his hand out to Felicity. She took it, returning his smile with the small one she’d been mustering up all day. “You can leave her with me Sara. Thank you for showing her around.” 

Sara looked to Felicity and gave her one last smile before opening the door and leaving Felicity to her impending doom.  ****

#  \- 🖮 -

Turned out that Ray Palmer was a pretty nice guy. A total nerd, but Felicity couldn’t judge, since she was a strong one herself. He was way too smart to be an I.T. manager, but he told her that Q.C. started him at I.T. because he was fresh out of school and hadn’t done any work before, and would be moving to a higher position soon. 

She was now sat down in her very depressing and blank cubicle, as there was no decoration in it since the person who was there last had cleared it out fully. She was making a mental image of what she wanted to get that would make the cubicle seem more exciting but normal when the desktop computer came to life, her info now in the system. 

Looking around, Felicity relished in the fact that the person who left was in the back corner with only people in front of and to the side, meaning no one could look at her computer from directly behind unless they somehow climbed the 19 floors on the outside of the building. Her fear of heights hated having two windows, one behind and one to her right, but she’d live. She just wouldn’t look back, no problem. 

Attentively, Felicity looked towards the computer. She reached her hand out, but she wasn’t fast enough, and the computer sprang to life, already imputing her username and password, the desktop appearing. Swiveling her head to make sure no one saw, she took a deep breath and tried to hold the power back as much as she could, placing her hand on the mouse. The computer followed the mouse's directions, even as she thought about opening internet explorer. Excitement coming over her, she slipped, and the explorer page open and went to the QC employee site immediately, without her typing in the URL.

Holding back her urge to punch the table she tried once more, continuing to do simple tasks with just the computer while trying to hold her power back. It was hard, as computers read her as if she was some virus or program forcing them to do things, or as if they were a butler who did everything she wanted without her even asking.

She kept practicing, over again, until she suddenly heard a tapping sound and looked up from the computer to see she had a visitor. 

“Felicity Smoak?” The visitor asked, his voice raspy but clear. He had a chiseled jawline with defining angular features and short brown hair. His jaw was littered with a bit of scruff, and his eyes were a soft blue. It took Felicity a whole few seconds to realize who was standing in front of her. “Hi, I’m Oliver Queen.”   
  


“Of course, you’re Mr. Queen,” Felicity said, and cut off, realizing she might’ve said his name too snarkily. On her first day, really? Hopefully he was only there to welcome her and then none of the top executives would bother her anymore. She couldn’t stand rich people talk and her manners left some things to be desired. 

“Oh, no, my father was Mr. Queen, I’m just Oliver,” He said, with what she assumed was supposed to be a charming smile. She gave the half-somber tight-lipped smile she’d been giving to everyone today to him in return. 

“Right, but he died. I mean, technically, I guess he drowned. But you knew that. And probably didn’t need me to remind you. Alright. What can I do for you?” She cut herself off, hoping that didn’t sound as gloomy as it felt. Damn. She should be a bit nicer, it’s not like he asked for his father to drown. She breathed out, and smiled once more. 

“Everyone else was busy, so you get me giving you the official welcome to Q.C. Here, we’re a big family, so we find it very important to have one of the heads of the company come and welcome new employees, so we show you we are human and family. Is there any more questions you had or anything you need?” He asked, and Felicity held back a snort at how scripted he sounded. He probably didn’t ever do these. 

“Nope, totally fine here. But, thank you. For… welcoming me to your family,” Felicity said, proud at how sincere she sounded. Her first day and she was already pretty good at being just Felicity Smoak. He gave the million dollar smile once more and then nodded. Felicity took that as a dismissal, so she turned back to her computer. 

“Oh, Felicity,” He said, sounding as if he was contemplating whether or not he should say what he was thinking, “I read your resume. We all did, actually. My mom says she could find some good use out of a tech whiz who went to MIT.” 

He winked, and then sauntered away, leaving Felicity stunned. They all had read her resume? On top of that, Oliver Queen had winked at her. Who did he take her for? She rolled her eyes and turned back to her computer, realizing it had pulled up Oliver’s page on the Q.C. website. She nearly snarled, sighing and going back to her practice. This was going to take a while.


	2. Chapter II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity adapts to her new work environment, meets some new people, and encounters someone unexpected on her night out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't hold myself back from waiting any longer. Thank you all for your feedback! The amount of excitement I get when I see a notification in my inbox is quite a bit. Once more, let me know what you think. If you can't already tell, I'm in love with Sara Lance almost as much as I am with Felicity so she gets to be a big character in all my stories, as I feel her and Felicity's friendship could've been a lot stronger. Enjoy!

Chapter II

"No one is you, and that is your power" - Dave Grohl 

Felicity got up from her desk, her computer turning off. She’d been working at Queen Consolidated for over almost two weeks now, and she was actually enjoying it. She was getting use to the normalities of a normal, 9-5 life, but she didn’t find it boring, yet. She had also made a friend. 

Heading out of the I.T. department she rushed to the lift, realising she was going to be a few minutes late. A few days ago, Sara had shown up in her office with an offer to take her to the best lunch places in town, as long as the switched off paying every other day. Felicity answered yes, of course, as she was totally fine with that, as long as it meant making a friend and getting to try different types of delicious food.

The past few days they’d went to many different places, but Felicity was especially excited for today, as Sara had promised to take her to the best burger place in Starling City. How could Felicity not be excited for a juicy burger and some greasy fries? God bless America and all the greasy food to come from it. 

The lift bell dinged, and Felicity shuffled in, along with a few other people from the floor. One of the other guys pressed the lobby button, and she recognised him from the cubicles. She was starting to get some of the names down of the other people who worked in I.T, but only some of them had introduced themselves, and some of them didn’t seem the friendly or social type. She couldn’t blame them, computers were her language too. Literally. The doors closed, just as a memory surged in her brain. 

_ “Technically, you’re fluent in computer, since you speak to it and it reads you,” Cooper pointed out, and Felicity grunted, knocking out the last of the guys guarding the room she was trying to get into so she could access the main computer system.  _

_ “Really, C, this is the time to talk about my weird metahuman abilities?” Felicity muttered back, taking out a thermal pen from her belt and melting down the keyhole to unlock the control center door. “I’m literally about to hack a bank’s main computer from it’s control center,” Felicity added, as if he needed reminding.  _

_ He just laughed, and Felicity was halfway done wiring the extra money the bank had stole from client’s accounts when he piped up again. “But it counts as a language you speak, even if you don’t have to say anything for them to understand. So that makes three languages you speak. If only MIT knew that you know more than just english and spanish.” _

_ “Yeah, I’m really hung up over it,” Felicity muttered, continuing the rest of the transfers while babbling to Cooper all the reasons her abilities didn’t make her fluent in ‘computer’.  _

The elevator dinged and Felicity was jolted back to reality, the other people filing out of the elevator in front of her. Fixing her hair she stepped out and looked towards where Sara was normally waiting for her. She spotted Sara and blinked a few times, making sure what she saw was real. Next to Sara was Oliver Queen, and another tall dark skinned man with arms bigger than her head. Swallowing, Felicity headed to Sara. Was she really about to have lunch with Oliver Queen? 

Sara smiled at her when Felicity reached the group, and engulfed Felicity in a hug. She was one of the first people Felicity had allowed to touch her, ever. Especially since she’d never had friends before. Felicity returned the hug. 

“So, Oliver will be joining us for lunch, as well as Mr. Diggle, his bodyguard. Oliver said he met you on your first day. They happen to have a weekly tradition of going to Big Belly on Thursdays as well, so I figured we could all go together,” Sara said, and Felicity couldn’t be mad at the hope in Sara’s eyes. Felicity nodded, and Sara walked towards the door, Oliver next to her. Once on the street, Felicity realised there would be no chance of stealing Sara from Oliver and instead fell into step next to the bodyguard, whom Sara had called Mr. Diggle. 

“I’m Felicity, by the way. Nice to meet you,” Felicity said, unable to walk awkwardly without letting her mouth go off. “I don’t know what etiquette bodyguards have and if I’m not supposed to talk to you or anything, but it must be boring to just follow Oliver around when he’s chatting with girls. Not that he does that a lot, or I mean… I read the tabloids,” Felicity brought her hands up and wiped her face, tightening her ponytail. She really couldn’t talk to new people, even as normal Felicity. 

“John Diggle. Friends call me Dig. You as well, if you’d like,” The man said, his voice very kind, in opposition with his intimidating stature. “I get that a lot. I was in the military, so we were trained to look intimidating. Don’t worry, I’m only scary to people who need to be scared,” He said, and Felicity clasped her hands over her mouth. Apparently she still said thoughts aloud without realising. She hadn’t done that one in a while. Pre-Overwatch middle school Felicity was coming back, and that was not a good thing.

“Soooo, did I just sign up to be friend’s with Oliver Queen’s secret girlfriend? Because I don’t think I can handle that responsibility.. Probably be a lot of comforting,” Felicity said, meaning it. She did not want to end up having to attend galas or whatever events the elites of the city hold. She also was just trying to search out if there was anything in between them without having to ask Sara. 

“No, Oliver has a thing for Sara’s older sister, Laurel,” Diggle explained, and Felicity nodded. She may have seen Laurel in some of the photos of the Queen family when she was researching. “Though, Sara and Oliver have had a thing before. I don’t try to keep track. It’s… a lot of drama, that’s for sure,” Diggle finished on, sounding like he wasn’t entirely sure how to politely call Oliver a playboy. 

“Alright well, that’ll be fun to hear about, I guess,” Felicity muttered, making a mental note to not ask Sara about relationships. “You seem a little overqualified to be a bodyguard,” Felicity changed the subject, wanting to learn more about Mr. Diggle. If Sara was going to make her go to lunches with a Queen, then she could at least befriend the bodyguard, especially when he seemed so cool. 

“Hum, yes, but you could say the same yourself,” He replied, and Felicity felt as if he was dodging the question. She didn’t want to be nosy, so she decided to let it drop, as she wouldn’t want anyone poking into her personal life. God knows how much she would blabber out if anyone were to be nosy. 

Sara and Oliver suddenly stopped, and Felicity almost tripped on her feet trying not to run into them. “We’re here,” Sara said, motioning for Felicity to come in. The sign read ‘Big Belly Burger’, and Felicity almost smiled. At least they weren’t falsely advertising. This is the kind of place Cooper would love. He was the one who got her into greasy food. Then again he got her into almost everything important in her life. 

Her heart strained, but she shook it off, going to the counter and ordering what Sara ordered, hoping it was just as good as she claimed it was. Felicity sat down at the table Oliver had seated himself, across from him, hoping Sara would sit next to her. Mr. Diggle’s phone went off, and Felicity watched him tap Sara’s shoulder and drag her out of the restaurant. 

“What’s that about?” Felicity asked, and Oliver broke his eyes off from the window, Sara and Dig visible talking about something that seemed important outside. He looked at her, and it looked as if she’d caught him by surprise, his tongue stuck in his throat or something. She waited, hoping her food would be ready soon. 

“Sara sometimes helps in security,” Oliver explained finally, and Felicity decided she’d take it, though it definitely felt like he was hiding something. Maybe she’d ask Sara later. Or not. Why did she care so much, was the question. 

Their food was delivered, and Sara and Dig finally returned, much to Felicity’s joy, as Oliver hadn’t initiated any conversation, just pulled out his phone. Apparently, she wasn’t worth the conversation. Sara sat next to Oliver, but Felicity didn’t mind sitting next to Diggle. They ate quietly, and it didn’t seem to bother any of them, but Felicity wasn’t used to a constant silence around other people. 

“So, Felicity, where were you from before you moved here?” Oliver finally asked, and Felicity felt relieved for the break in the tension, even if it was forced. This question was easy. She’d practiced this one a bunch before the interview, so she had it down. 

“I’m initially from Las Vegas. Stayed there until I graduated and then moved to New England to go to MIT and stayed for a year or so afterwards and then found myself here,” Felicity said, hoping she wasn’t talking too much or too fast. “I’ve never had a place that really felt like home so I like trying out new cities often.” 

Oliver nodded. She would ask him the same, but she already knew the answer. Except for the five years he was stranded on an island, he was in Starling. His whole life was public. Felicity remembered when it was like that with Overwatch, even if it wasn’t her personal life. Her and Cooper were star-crossed anti-heroes, or villains, depending on the page, in many gossip sites. But that was her old dead life. Just like her dead boyfriend. 

Felicity choked on a fry, feeling tears readying themselves. Not in front of people, in public. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. It’d been a month. She’d grieved. It was time to forget.

When she reopened her eyes she saw that none of them had even noticed her disdain, as they all seemed to be engaged in some silent conversation through their eyes. She looked down at her completed meal and nudged Diggle. 

“I’m done, and my break is almost over, so I better head back,” She declared, and Diggle moved so she could get out. She threw her trash away and then grabbed her bag, none of them moving. “Well, thanks for lunch. Let’s hang sometime this weekend,” She directed at Sara, who nodded distantly. Shrugging, Felicity contemplated just how odd that lunch had been on her way back to the Office. 

  
****

#  \- 🖮 -

“How’s my new favorite I.T. employee fairing?” Felicity looked up from her work, startled to see Oliver leaning against the wall of her cubicle. She had decorated it with a few ferns and aesthetic like photos of beaches. It seemed really basic, but it made her happy, and it fit her new persona. 

“Geez, don’t you knock?” Felicity replied, making sure to close out the tabs on her computer with her mouse and not with her brain. She’d have to set up a machine when someone walked within her cubicles vicinity so she knew when to stop using her powers and look normal. 

“Felicity, this is the I.T. Department, not the ladies room,” Oliver pointed out and Felicity scowled, knowing he was right, and now she just sounded rude. Turning up from her computer she met Oliver’s eyes. It had been just the day before that they’d went to lunch, but it felt like they were meeting new all over again, since he’d been so distant at the lunch. “So, I need your help with something,” He started. 

“Don’t you have personal I.T. up there?” Felicity said, realising a second later how that sounded. “By personal, I mean, completely professional, of course, just like, personal as in they work specifically for the Executives,” Felicity clarified. Oliver just gave her a small smile and placed an item on her desk. “Gee, I didn’t get you a… are these bullet holes?” Felicity stopped her joke, looking at the laptop he put down on a table. 

“Well, no, it’s not mine,” Oliver explained, and Felicity just raised her eyebrow higher. “I would very much appreciate it if you could try and salvage anything off of it,” Oliver said, and Felicity snorted. Oliver ignored it, luckily, but Felicity felt like she deserved that, considering he handed her a laptop full of bullet holes. Where the hell did he get this and why did he want her to hack it? 

“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” Felicity said, opening up the laptop and looking at the cracked screen. Turning towards Oliver, who had hunched himself over her shoulder as if he was a child watching a tv show. “Privacy, please? I can’t hack with you brooding over my shoulder.” 

Oliver turned towards the window, but Felicity was almost sure she heard him guffaw. Pressing some buttons to make it sound like she was doing something to hack, Felicity let her power work it’s magic, the computer’s home screen glitching a few times before opening. So her powers could force a computer with bullet holes to turn on. Cool. 

After a minute or so, she pulled a flash drive out of the side of the computer, spinning in her chair. Oliver was on his phone, typing something, his fingers moving quickly. “Alright, this should have everything you need,” Felicity said, and Oliver turned, a bit too close for comfort. 

“You’re a miracle worker,” Oliver complimented, and Felicity smiled. It felt nice to be praised, as she hadn’t received much of it since when she first started dating Cooper and was top of the class at MIT. Felt nice, especially since she was just an I.T. worker. Oliver turned and left without saying anything else, and Felicity realised she had waited too long to say anything. 

#  \- 🖮 -

“Come on Felicity, it’s a big city, and it awaits!” Sara exclaimed, and Felicity threw another dress to the ground in frustration, staring at her body in the mirror. None of the sexy dresses Sara lent her fit, since it seemed she couldn’t find one that hid all of her scars. Trying to be normal Felicity meant the scars from Overwatch’s field days would be a bit questionable.

Finally settling on the most modest one, Felicity put on the dress. It was a dark purple, and flowed down to above her knees. It was also long sleeve, which was a bonus. The more she could hide the better. She grabbed her purse and made her way out of her small bedroom to the only other part of her house, the kitchen. Sara was sitting at the small table on her phone, in a very flattering red dress that hugged her curves. Felicity had tried looking like that before, but she found that she liked being modest as normal Felicity.

Sara stood up, tucking her phone in her small handbag. “Ready?” She asked, and Felicity gave a small, determined nod, sliding her flats on. She couldn’t stand heels, and she had to wear them to work most of the time, so she tried to avoid them when she could. Felicity opened the door, Sara going through it, Felicity locking her apartment behind her. They made their way to Sara’s car, Felicity not having one, and Felicity got into the passenger's seat. It was just when Sara started the car Felicity realised something. 

“Sara, where are we going?” Felicity inquired. She knew it wouldn’t make too much of a difference since Felicity didn’t know any of the nightlife places in Starling City at all, but she was still interested. 

“It’s called Verdant,” Sara said nonchalantly, but Felicity saw something flicker over her face, something that was full of mischief. She knew she should’ve said no when Sara said spending her Saturday night alone was depressing and convinced her to come out.

“Sara…” Felicity said in a parental like voice. The roads were getting narrower and they were headed into a neighborhood Felicity didn’t know all that well. 

“It’s Oliver and Tommy’s club,” Sara admitted, and Felicity blanched. If this was some upscale rich person club Felicity was going to be way out of place. Well, more than usual, at least. “No, it’s just a normal club,” Sara confirmed, and Felicity cringed at her treacherous tongue.

“Where is this club? I haven’t been around here before,” Felicity commented, looking out the window of the car. It was true, none of the places she’d ever gone for the short while she’d been in Starling had been in this direction. 

“The club is on the border between the regular neighborhoods of Starling and the Glades. The Glades are like… well… self-explanatory,” Sara offered, but Felicity knew exactly what she meant. The Glades were a place that a female I.T. worker who lived in a middle class apartment and worked a 9-5 should not be alone at night. Though, she could kick the asses of anyone who tried to get at her, Sara didn’t know that. 

Sara pulled over a few minutes later at a bright lit building with a line of people outfront and what were probably handlers at the front door. There was a flashy white light up-sign that read ‘Verdant’, and the building looked glossy, as if it was new. 

Sara got out, so Felicity did as well, shivering a bit, hoping the inside of the club was warmer than the cool outside air. Sara locked her car and then skipped to the door, completely cutting all the people in line. Felicity hesitated.

“Luckily, being friends with the owner has its perks,” Sara said, the handler not even stopping them as Sara grabbed Felicity’s hand and pulled her through the door. Guess they didn’t even need to check her ID if she was with Sara? 

The club was extremely nice looking. There was a bar on the left and a huge, very busy, dance floor in the middle, along with stairs leading to an upper section where seating was available. Only after a few seconds did Felicity realise she was looking for Oliver, and she stopped herself, turning to Sara, who was already moving to the bar. 

Felicity followed, moving out of the way of dancing and most likely drunk people as they went, reaching the bar next to Sara. A man was mixing something and chatting with some ladies a few steps away. Sara coughed loudly. 

“Sara Lance, always a joy, especially when you’re dressed so fine,” The man said. He had brown hair and a long, handsome face, clean shaven, with kind eyes and soft features. “Oh, and I see we’ve brought a friend,” the man said, reaching his hand from across the bar out. “I’m Tommy Merlyn.”

“Felicity Smoak,” Felicity said, hesitantly shaking the hand. She’d heard of Tommy Merlyn before, as he was in the tabloids too. Apparently him and Oliver caused a lot of trouble when they were teens. She understood in a way. Bored and good to go financially for the rest of their lives without having to work a day. 

“What’ll it be, ladies?” He asked, and Felicity wasn’t sure if she was relieved or slightly offended that she didn’t get any sweet talk. Maybe her face was too mean. 

“Whiskey on the rocks,” Sara ordered, looking to Felicity, who shrugged. She hadn’t been a party girl at MIT and her and Cooper never drank much. “Make it two,” Sara added. Tommy turned and started working on the drinks, Sara turning to Felicity. “I have to go check on Laurel, she should be somewhere around here. She’s gotten into trouble in the past for… well… I just like to check,” Sara said, and Felicity watched helplessly as she sauntered away. 

“Here you are,” Tommy said, handing Felicity the drink. Picking it up, Felicity looked at the liquid closely. “It’s safe, promise,” Tommy said, and Felicity realised what it looked like. 

“Oh, no, I’m not worried about that, totally not. I just, I haven’t drank a lot in the past so I don’t really know what this is. I mean, I’ve heard of it, but I haven’t had it. In a while,” Felicity babbled, groaning. “Ugh, I hate my mouth. Maybe getting drunk will help my babble.” 

Tommy laughed and Felicity decided to take a sip. It burned down her throat, but in a pleasant way. Tommy laughed again, and Felicity smiled, looking at him. “Your face. There’s no way you’ve had whiskey before,” He said, and Felicity let out a chuckle, her smile genuine. 

Just then, a couple walked up, and Tommy turned to them, leaving Felicity alone with her drink. She couldn’t believe Sara just left her. Weren’t they going to dance together? 

Seeing a spot across the floor, Felicity wove her way through the happy people, nearly getting knocked over, until she was against the furthest wall, finally feeling safe. She watched as couples danced with each other. She couldn’t see Sara anywhere, but she decided to let it go. Even if Sara had been lying, it wasn’t any of Felicity’s business. 

_ “Come on F, dance with me,” Cooper begged, and Felicity giggled again, her arms still crossed over her stomach. She was on the couch in their apartment, and Cooper had Beatles songs going on the stereo, as their neighbors were out, so they could play loud music. _

_ “Alone? In our apartment? To Yellow Submarine?” Felicity laughed, but gave in when Cooper grabbed her hand and pulled her up. He pressed the button, flipping through the songs until ‘Yesterday’ came on. He pulled Felicity into a slow dance position. Felicity didn’t know how to dance, since she’d never slow danced with anyone in high school, but she went with what Cooper was doing.  _

_ She was still grinning as they swayed when the song ended and ‘Back In the USSR’ started playing. Snorting Felicity pushed off him, but he pulled her back in, landing a kiss on her cheek, and then her lips, drawing her in with his soft, comforting lips. _

Felicity dropped the whiskey and watched the glass shatter, reaching a hand up to her mouth, covering it so the cry that bubbled up through her throat couldn’t be heard. She looked for an exit and saw a back one, shoving past people who didn’t even notice her. She pushed open the back door and flew down the steps, sitting down on the last one, tears welling up in her eyes. 

The crys began, louder than she preferred, snot coming out of her nose. She was such an ugly crier. Cooper would be teasing her about it right now. But he couldn’t, because he was dead. He was dad, and this was her life now. He was gone, leaving her with nothing but her stupid powers and stupid old life and how dare he leave her when he was all she had and-

A loud bang startled Felicity, and she took her hands off her eyes, looking to what made the noise. Suddenly frightened and curious at the same time, Felicity stood, wiping her eyes and making her way towards where the noise came from. She turned a corner to what she assumed what was the back of the building. 

And there it was. Up on the roof, looking the other direction, not even realising she was watching him, was a hooded man in green. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are spicing up. Also, got to love Diggle. Xx


	3. Chapter III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update, finally! I've been busy with school and tests and all that good stuff. Finally had a few hours to sit down and write. Hope everyone enjoys, I really do like how this story is playing out. Let me know what you think, comments and kudos always brighten my day. Xx

Chapter III

“Living will carve you open. You can’t choose what wounds you, you can only choose what seals the scar” - Shelby Bach, Of Giants and Ice

The Green Arrow was his name, Felicity remembered. He was quite the celebrity around here. Starling City’s own vigilante. She had heard of him during her Overwatch days, as she was interested in all other vigilantes as well, but he seemed to be of the more violent type. Felicity and Cooper avoided killing, only doing so in protection of themselves if necessary. The Green Arrow did not seem to have that ideal. 

His head suddenly turned her direction and Felicity froze. She couldn’t see his eyes as he was on a rooftop across from where she stood, but she felt as if his eyes her drilling into her, looking directly past her normal Felicity ruse. He was powerful, and threatening, and someone new Felicity did not need to be in contact with. 

She quickly turned back the way she came, running back to the steps of the door she came out of, hoping he hadn’t got a good look at her. He was the last thing she needed right now. Just as she was taking a deep breath to go back in, the door burst open, Sara coming through it. 

“Oh thank God Felicity!” Sara exclaimed, pulling Felicity into a tight hug. Felicity returned it, Sara not realising just how much Felicity needed this about now. She rested her head on Sara’s shoulder, taking in Sara’s strength. “I couldn’t find you anywhere in there and I didn’t know if something bad happened. I promise I won’t leave you by yourself again.” 

She pulled back, and looked at Felicity’s face. Felicity didn’t say anything and let Sara walk her to the car. Once they got in the car, Felicity relaxed a bit. Seeing the Arrow did not help her emotional breakdown, as it just made her more shaky. 

She didn’t say anything on the ride home, just listened to the quiet music on the radio and looked out the window. When they reached her apartment Felicity expected Sara to leave her at the door, but she walked her in. Felicity sat on the small couch next to the small kitchen table, and Sara sat down next to her on it. 

Felicity wasn’t sure what Sara’s boundaries were, so she decided to just cradle one of her couch pillows. She took a few minutes, trying to sort out her brain. She knew Sara was waiting for something, but Felicity wasn’t sure if she was ready. She had to start somewhere, though, and she wasn’t revealing her who backstory to Sara. 

“You know I haven’t lived here long,” Felicity said softly, and Sara nodded. “You also may have noticed for a girl who blabbers when she does talk, I don’t talk much,” Felicity added, and Sara let out a soft laugh. 

“I think it’s good when you talk. You know how to make someone smile, even if unintentional,” Sara complimented. Felicity didn’t believe that, but she thought it was sweet of Sara to say. 

“Before I moved to Starling, when I still lived in New England, I had a boyfriend. He was my everything. It was wonderful. We lived together, and had great jobs, and enjoyed days off, and had similar hobbies,” Felicity reminisced, smiling. “And then he passed. Suddenly. Abruptly. Way before his time,” Felicity stated, and Sara’s face startled and then softened. “Doctors didn’t know what happened, and said it was best I didn’t know to much,” Felicity added, realising your common joe wasn’t shot execution style. 

“Felicity,” Sara said, and Felicity looked up from the pillow she was cradling. Sara’s eyes were wet, and Felicity didn’t recognise she could have brought up bad past memories of Sara’s by mentioning Cooper. “You’re brave, and strong. You haven’t talked to anyone?” Sara asked, and Felicity nodded. 

“Dad left when I was a baby. Mom died when I was in college. No one else in my life besides my mom. Pretty depressing, right?” Felicity asked, letting out a hollow laugh. It was so ironic. All the world had ever done was take from her. Progressing through life with bad shit waiting around every corner. 

“My mom and dad divorced when I was very young. My mom moved far away, and I never saw her again,” Sara said, offering comfort in relatability. She took Felicity’s hand. “I was also on the boat that killed Oliver’s dad,” Sara said, quietly, and Felicity paled. _That_ certainly wasn’t in the tabloids. 

“Why would you be- ohhh…” Felicity faded out, feeling embarrassed for not realising and keeping to herself. Damn. That probably had a lot of complications. Felicity looked down at their interlocked hands. “So you survived on the island too?” Felicity asked, suddenly extremely proud to be this woman’s friend. 

“I was on one of the life rafts, floated around until I thought I’d die when a European boat picked me up. Didn’t speak a lick of English. I’m here now, though, and that’s what matters,” She squeezed Felicity’s hand, and Felicity met her eyes. “I was broken. I’d almost died, and I had to go back to a broken family. My dad was an alcoholic by then. My sister hated me, with just reason.” 

Sara sniffled, tears falling out of her eyes, mimicking the same tears on Felicity’s face. Putting the pillow aside, Felicity scooted right next to Sara, hoping the closeness would bring comfort. Sara wiped her eyes and smiled. 

“I don’t say this to diminish your emotions. I say it so you know you have a sister in all of this. I went through hell, and you’re going through hell. There are still times where I wake up from a dream where I’m out on that raft, on the edges of hysteria,” Sara said, as if remembering the dream there, and Felicity’s nightmares of Cooper’s brutal death popped up in her head, making her let out a sob. “But we move on, and grow, and get strong. With those who love us.” 

Felicity smiled. “I’ve known you for barely a few weeks, and you already want to be my sister and love me? There must be some God, since they’ve blessed me with you,” Felicity joked, though she meant it. Sara felt too good to be true, and Felicity was all for it. She’d never had a true friend. 

“That’s where you’re wrong. The minute I laid eyes on you I knew I was about to have a new best friend. I’m the blessed one,” Sara argued, and Felicity wrapped her arms around Sara in a tight embrace. She was letting someone in. Normal Felicity was already a step ahead of Overwatch. Take that, metahuman powers. 

# \- 🖮 -

Felicity entered work on Monday with a new outlook. Sara had stayed over the whole night watching random movies with her, and they hadn’t got a lick of sleep, but it was so worth it. The rest of the weekend Felicity spent doing research on the city and the Arrow, and working on her new outlook. 

As she strolled into the I.T. office with a steaming latte and yet another potted plant for her desk, she greeted some of the other workers, attempting to be friendly and not overly quiet. Sara was right. She had it in her to make people smile. Even if they were laughing at how ridiculous she sounded. 

Sitting down at her desk, Felicity dug into the pile of work she had to get done. She was almost sure her boss gave her more work than the other workers, but she was better than most of them, so it made sense. 

She made sure no one was around and then let her abilities do their thing, too lazy to try and do it all the manual way. How did people live like that? She almost felt bad for the non-meta I.T. workers. Huh. 

Halfway through the morning she realised she had a file that had her manager’s name on it, probably misfiled, and went to his office to turn it in. She moved to knock on the door, but heard arguing voices and stopped. Maybe she’d come back another time. 

“This is ridiculous Ms. Rochev, you can’t sack people without my input,” Felicity paused, surprised at the desperation in Ray’s voice. Her manager didn’t seem like the begging type. “They have families and people they need to provide for. You can’t just get rid of them. They’re all doing important things!”

Felicity held up her hand and knocked, before she could listen any longer. The door opened extremely fast, a loud whoosh of air coming from the quick movement. The woman he was arguing with was short and petite, with dark hair and a small frame. Ray looked to Felicity with exhausted eyes. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt your, uhh, grr. I think this file got misplaced on my desk, it had your name, not mine,” Felicity said holding the file out to him. He took it, and Felicity mouthed good luck. He gave her a pained smile and then closed the door forcefully. 

Felicity made her way back to her desk, the conversation she overheard suddenly setting in. They couldn’t sack the department. She’d just started working there, and she didn’t hate it either. Besides, they were definitely needed, and the department was already pretty small. 

Frustrated, she turned to her cubicle to find Oliver sitting in her chair looking out the window, his back to her. “This better be good,” Felicity stated, and Oliver swung the chair around before getting up and allowing her to sit back down. She ignored the question of why he had been sitting in her chair in the first place. 

“Heard you were in my club on Saturday. Did you like it?” Oliver said, leaning against the cubical wall, the same way he had done when he came by before. Felicity just shrugged, not really in the mood to discuss how Oliver’s club was when it just brought up bad memories and reminded her of the Arrow, which just scared her. 

“What do you want, Oliver?” Felicity asked patiently, looking at her computer to make sure her annoyance hadn’t jump started her powers. It was off, thankfully, and she shoved her powers down, looking back to Oliver. 

“I need your help, with something for the club, evidently,” Oliver said, and Felicity waited, watching as Oliver pulled a syringe out of his pocket. “Someone left this at the club, and I have no clue what it is. If you could figure out what the chemical makeup of it is, I would be very grateful.” 

Felicity took the liquid, confused. “Why is it in a syringe?” She asked, confused why someone would leave a clear liquid like this in a syringe. “Ohhh… drugs, right. Yeah, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll send the results to your email,” Felicity said, placing the syringe on her desk and turning back to her computer. “By the way,” Felicity added, confused on why she was still speaking, “You should watch your security around your club. You never know what kind of lowlifes could be snooping around.” 

# \- 🖮 -

Felicity was exhausted, and so ready for some tv and mint chip that she didn’t realise she was being followed until she was about a block away from her house. She didn’t think anyone had gotten off the bus after her, so she assumed they started following her when she was walking back from the station. 

She was used to people stalking her when she was out as Overwatch, but as normal Felicity this was new, as there wasn’t anything exciting about her. She pulled out her phone, ready to dial 911 as she walked up the steps to her door, when something thumped in front of her. 

Not something. Someone. He stood up from the crouched he landed in, and Felicity jumped back, her foot slipping on the back of the step. She barely caught her balance, but the Arrow didn’t do anything to help her, just stood there with bow in hand. He wasn’t pointing an arrow at her, so there was at least some good news. 

She thought she wouldn’t be as terrified face to face with a vigilante considering she was one, but new Felicity seemed to not like having pointy arrows that close to her face. 

The man chuckled in a hushed tone, and Felicity realised she may have just said that out loud. He dropped his arm, bow falling with it, making her feel a bit better. “So, what you gonna put me in for?” Felicity joked. She knew joking wasn’t what this guy was known for, but hey, what was to lose? 

“You saw me,” He stated. His voice was crackly, raw in a way that only a voice modulator could do. It was creepy. It was smart, so that people couldn’t detect his voice or recognise him. But still creepy. 

“Yeah, a few nights ago at some club, on a rooftop, being all… broody,” Felicity said, throwing the word out as it was all she could come up with. “So?” She asked, not sure what the problem was. She didn’t know who he was, all she saw was a silhouette of him. To someone who didn’t read the news he could’ve just been a weirdo on a rooftop. 

“You saw _me,_ ” He emphasised. What the hell? No she didn’t. How could she?

“No, I didn’t,” Felicity argued, finding this conversation utterly useless and slightly ridiculous. In a judge of the moment, Felicity realising this man had no intention of hurting her, she pushed past him to her door. “Could you leave me alone now? I really just want to watch movies, eat mint chip and hope my boss doesn’t count his new blonde I.T, lady who blabbers on as someone who needs to be laid off.”

She put her key in the door and unlocked it, but this man really wasn’t going to get off the porch to her apartment complex. What did she need to do? Guess a random identity and hope that the 10% rule is reliable enough that the identity isn’t him?

“I need your help,” He said, and Felicity turned, her curiosity suddenly piqued. Why would he need her help? “I’m looking for someone who can help me with technical analysis,” He explained, and Felicity cocked her head to the side. How did he know her occupation? Again, creepy. 

“Why me?” Felicity asked, not sure why the words slipped out of her mouth. Why did everyone bother her so much? First Oliver during work and now the Arrow. She just wanted to be left alone. 

“Because I see past your ruse,” Felicity coughed, her heart plummeting. Did this guy know about Overwatch? There was no way. No one could rummage through all the tracks she’d eliminated. All they’d find would be dead ends. She made sure of it, and she was good. Better than any other technical analyst. “You aren’t normal, even if you’re pretending to be.”

“Nope. Wrong. I’m completely normal, 100%. Normal normal normal. Extremely boring too. Who sits and watches Supernatural all night while eating mint chip ice cream not caring about anything else and works a 9-5? Normal people. Which I am. Normal…” Felicity stopped, scrunching her face. 

She weighed her options. For some reason, she felt like this guy wasn’t going to give up. She could help him occasionally, and just hide it from work, do it all from home. Maybe if she did it a few times he’d leave her alone after a bit. She could annoy him away from her. That worked with a lot of men. But she just escaped this kind of life. 

She could do it, analyze technical stuff for him online, no questions asked. That way she wouldn’t feel the way she did with Cooper. Yeah, it could be like a side job, something she did on her weekends as a hobby, something she could stop easily whenever she felt like. 

“Okay,” Felicity breathed, so quiet she could barely hear herself. “But no strings attached. When I’m out I’m out, no questions asked,” Felicity ordered. The hood nodded, and Felicity watched him. “I also don’t want to know who you are. As much as you can deny, I do enjoy being normal, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“I’ll find you when I need you,” He said. Felicity was about to argue about how ridiculous and slightly sexist that sounded when he grabbed the roof above her porch and pulled himself onto it, disappearing into the night. 

As Felicity watched Cas and Dean pine for each other the entire night, Felicity couldn’t help but wonder if the Vigilante life would ever leave her alone, or if it was something she was supposed to be doing forever. 

# \- 🖮 -

“I need this analyzed.”

Felicity closed the door behind her. This was her third visit from the Green Arrow this week, the second thing he’d brought her to analyze. Guess this time he’d said screw it to privacy and decided to show up inside her apartment. “You know, home invasion is a crime in Starling City,” Felicity responded, setting her purse down on her small kitchen table. 

He was standing next to the big window, a breeze coming through it. Damn, did she forget to lock her window? “Locks don’t hold me back. And no, you didn’t say that aloud,” He informed, and Felicity rolled her eyes. 

“What you got for me?” She asked, approaching him close enough that he could reach out and put the object in her hand. She looked away while he placed the object in her palms and then backed up. She meant what she said about not knowing who he was. She didn’t want to have another Cooper situation. Not like she fell in love that easily. 

Looking at the drive in her hand, Felicity moved over to her table, pulling her tablet from her bag and turning it on. The Arrow didn’t budge, brooding. Felicity plugged the drive in, watching as the encrypted files began popping up on her screen. She didn’t bother asking about what exactly she was looking at, just unencrypted the files so he could see all the data and saved it. 

“This was a no brainer. You probably could do it for yourself, if you actually had a good system,” Felicity said, handing him the drive back with her eyes downturned. “I can tell you probably have no idea how to run a well functioning computer system. You seem like the archaic type.” 

She thought she heard a chuckle, but she turned away, going to the small kitchen. She was about to offer him a drink when she heard a woosh. She turned, the wind blowing at her curtain through her open window. The least he could do was shut the window. Felicity sighed, wondering how she could already sense he was never going to shut the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm a Supernatural nerd, which mean Felicity gets to be one too.


	4. Chapter IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Classes are busy but finally got some free time today to keep writing. Thanks to everyone for waiting patiently for the updates. Really happy with the way this story is going, hope everyone's enjoying. Xx

**Chapter IV**

“You always have a choice. You can either roll over and die, or you can keep fighting, no matter what.” -Dean Winchester

_ “Calculator, answer your comm or I’ll have to go in there!” The line was flat. Felicity was near a full on panic attack. The sirens of the cops were blaring, the annoying ear splitting rhythm getting louder as they approached. Still no answer from Cooper. Felicity looked from the tablet in front of her to the building across the street. The lights were off, but they weren’t supposed to be on anyways. Felicity sat up from the lying position she had been in, that was concealing her due to the tall brick slab along the roofline. She really didn’t have much of a decision to make, it was Cooper. Even if they’d been arguing about her wanting to put away Overwatch forever lately, he was still everything to her. The little good she had in her life.  _

_ The tablet seemed to agree with her, reading her decision as a reason to start undoing the traps she had set for anyone who was planning on following Cooper. She grabbed the grappling hook from next to her, shooting onto the rooftop in front of her, sliding across it easily. Jumping from the hanging line to the new rooftop, she didn’t bother taking the hook with her, assuming her and Cooper could exit some other way. The sirens were loud enough that the authorities must’ve only been a few minutes away. Who the hell called them? And why the hell had Cooper’s comms turned off? It couldn’t have been a tech mistake. Those didn’t exist when it came to Overwatch. _

_ Felicity moved fast, running to the escape stairs, opening the hatch and jumping down, three stairs at a time. Pushing through the door leading to the main floor, she slowed, listening for any fighting or sounds that weren’t supposed to be there. She couldn’t hear much, which just alerted her more. Sprinting through the halls, not knowing exactly where the meeting was being held, Felicity went through the checklist in her mind of what was supposed to happen.  _

_ It was a simple negotiation. Cooper was supposed to be meeting with a company that, on the front, managed finance for companies needing a place to invest, but on the back, laundered the finance they managed into offshore accounts to save for later and ripped off their clients with false management and counterfeit financial profiles. The pair had been hired by someone who had been ripped off by the so-called company to destroy the company and get their money back.  _

_ They hadn’t planned on destroying the company. Cooper was supposed to meet in an attempt to invest some money Felicity had conjured up from some offshore accounts into the company. After they had invested Felicity could’ve had all she needed to get into their accounts, as she needed to use one of their computers to do it. Even if her abilities were great, computers could only do for her what they knew, and she needed a computer that could remember where the accounts were and how they’d been set up. While Cooper was in the ‘investment meeting’ he was supposed to place a device he’d created that would allow them to shut down their security for 10 minutes. Felicity would’ve went in later that night and used the computer to get into the accounts and get people their money back and boom, Overwatch and her partner Calculator had saved the day once more, blah blah.  _

“Felicity! Fe-li-ci-ty!” Felicity’s eyes sprung open. Her neck skyrocketed up, and the back of her head slammed into something. Looking up, blinking to get the dreary sleep out of her eyes, she saw all too quickly, Oliver Queen looming over her. Spinning in her chair she did best she could to create space, and he stepped back. 

“Whatever you think you saw, you definitely did not just find me sleeping on the job, sir. I would never. Just meditation. Or prayer. Or both, whatever sounds most believable,” She adjusted her glasses, and noticed Oliver wasn’t even looking at her, but was looking at her computer screen. 

Registering the article about Overwatch pulled up with horror, Felicity, still groggy, couldn’t hold back her powers quick enough. The computer completely shut down, Oliver blinking in surprise. Felicity panicked, quickly scooting to put herself between Oliver and the computer, as if she could hide it. 

“I won’t ask why you’re reading articles about a dead vigilante if you don’t report me for harassment,” Oliver offered, and, though not knowing why she’d report him for harassment, Felicity agreed. She must’ve passed out while she was working, and her dream confused the computer, making it think she wanted to read articles about her old life, since she was thinking about it in her dream. 

It was the Green Arrow’s fault. He’d had her up almost all last night, analyzing an FBI database, looking for a specific person with no specifics, taking her forever. She still hadn’t found the person, and he’d probably come bother her again tonight, which meant she’d probably be missing out on sleep all of tonight as well. Damn his persistence and her willingness.

She’d been thinking over exactly why she was so willing. She didn’t know, and almost every day for two weeks since the first time he’d contacted her she decided she’d tell him no. But, every time he showed up, there was just something about him that made her do it. He didn’t seem like the guy who asked for help often. 

It made her feel special. It was stupid and ridiculous, but the only other person who’d ever made her feel this special was Cooper. Damnit, she liked the special feeling, that she was the one he decided to ask for help, not any other techy people in Starling. It was dumb, and could only go downhill from here. Nonetheless…

“Felicity, did you catch any of that?” She blinked, looking up at Oliver, not realizing she’d gotten lost in her thoughts. “Your computer seems to be having problems, by the way,” He said, and Felicity swiveled. It had turned on once more, this time opening at least five news articles on the Arrow. Felicity’s gut clenched. How the hell was she supposed to explain all this, and why were her abilities going wack? Maybe lack of sleep meant less control? 

“I’m sorry, I had a really long night. I’ll try to fix my computer, but it often acts like this. I’m not sure why or how, but I am an I.T. worker so if anyone can figure it out, I can. Don’t know why this popped up though. Oh you know! It auto launches a few news sites. Think it came with the computer. Guess I’ll have to turn that off. So, what do you need?” Felicity was near out of breath. She was really shit at excuses. Especially when it came to her metahuman abilities. 

“Alright. Anyways, I was saying I wanted to invite you to a private party at Verdant this Friday. Sara could use the company, as Laurel’s been driving her a bit off lately,” Oliver said, and Felicity waited, grabbing her mouse and flipping off the tabs about the Arrow. “It’ll be informal, and fun, I promise. Sara’s really gotten to like you and she needs people like you in her life.” 

Deciding not to ask what ‘people like her’ were and instead deciding to take it as a compliment, Felicity nodded. She’d consider it, but she’d probably politely decline. Last time she went to that club she acquired her night job and then had a mental breakdown after a flashback. 

“Okay, I’ll consider it,” Felicity offered up, and Oliver gave her a curt nod, one she was used to now. He stood for a few seconds, as if he wanted to say something or was waiting for her to say something, but he eventually moved. Felicity waited a few seconds before dropping her head onto her desk, making a thud noise. What the hell just happened?

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity sighed as she heard the familiar sound of her window lock being toyed with, tossing a handful of popcorn in her mouth. She paused ‘The French Mistake’ irritated at the interruption to one of her fave episodes. He always seemed to come in at the wrong time. She didn’t bother to stand, instead tilting her head to make sure it was him. 

He was still climbing through the window, and Felicity snorted. Watching him contort his body through the window lessened the fear factor of the arrow. She pulled herself off the couch tossing another handful in her mouth. After Oliver had left she’d managed to finish her work quickly due to her abilities and was able to find the person the Arrow was looking for in the database. 

“I found the person, and information on them as well, if you’ll give me back the drive I used, I can put all the data I pulled on it,” Felicity said, turning from the tablet propped up on her table to him. He seemed more broody, and he hadn’t moved, even though she asked for the drive. “Um, can I have the drive? I would prefer to get some sleep tonight. Almost got myself fired today because we were up all last night. Up doing work things, of course.”

He moved a few steps forward, and took the drive out of his pocket. She moved to get the drive, looking down as she usually did. Right as she was about to grab the drive, he grabbed her arm. She looked up suddenly, surprised. He wasn’t normally like this. Touchy. 

“You haven’t been completely honest with me, have you, Felicity?” He said, saying her name in a disciplinary figure way. She raised her brows, not sure if she should attempt to free herself or wait for him to get over himself. 

“Didn’t know we were sharing life stories. What do you want to know? Depending on how personal, I’d be fine to share, if that’ll calm your… grrr,” Felicity informed. She wasn’t sure if she would actually tell him the truth, as she wasn’t sure what he was looking for. 

“You failed to mention how you were in my steps not even a few months ago in New England,” The Arrow ground out, and Felicity yanked her arm free, stepping back, shaking her head. She dropped the drive and her popcorn bag, the kernels scattering on the floor. How in the hell did he know? How did he figure it out? What in the fuck? 

“No, no, no, no, no,” Felicity muttered dropping onto the chair behind her at the table. “Out, out, out,” Felicity ordered, pointing at the window. “Now!” She yelled, using her loud voice. He began moving towards her, and she covered her face with her hands.

He was going to kill her. Felicity let out a hollow laugh. He was going to ‘you’ve failed this city’ her, and her dead body would be found with the Arrow’s signature M.O. in her chest. Her heart was moving a mile a minute and she imagined it just stopping, an arrow puncturing through it. Maybe she deserved it, for thinking she could move on. She could see Cooper again. 

“Felicity, stop,” He ordered, and Felicity moved her hands from her eyes. He was right in front of her. She could see the mask and paint on his face from how close he was. Stop what? “Behind you, Felicity,” He explained, and Felicity turned around, seeing her tablet sizzling and short circuiting at the same time. 

“Shit. Shit shit shit!” Felicity exclaimed, shoving a shut down with her brain. The tablet flickered off, and Felicity breathed out, turning back to face the Arrow. He’d stepped back, and she was glad he did. “Well, you’re either going to kill me or sack me, so please get on with it,” Felicity deadpanned. Not like she worked for him, but it had definitely felt that way a few times. 

“So it was you,” He said, as if it had been a guess. Felicity swallowed. He’d been guessing? If she hadn’t reacted as she did… “Overwatch. I read about you. About your disappearance and your partner’s death,” He said, and Felicity choked on her saliva. It was weird to hear from someone directed at Felicity and not Overwatch. 

“Yeah. Wow, that feels weird to admit. But yeah. How did you even figure it out?” Felicity asked. He stayed still for a minute, definitely contemplating. Maybe he was deciding whether he should kill her or not. Felicity Didn’t move, not wanting to make him dislike her more. 

“Because you know me, Felicity.” Without warning he moved forward, and before Felicity could tell him to stop, he pulled his hood down and yanked off his mask. It registered way too quick to Felicity just what she was looking at.

“Oliver?!” It was a shock, as if Felicity hadn’t had enough of those. It passed quickly, though, as it kind of made sense, it didn't feel like such a surprise. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why but she wasn’t in the head space of trying to figure it out and decided she’d think about how she had suddenly started tolerating and maybe even appreciating a Queen, or just a wealthy person in general. 

He pulled the mask down again, as if he needed to keep it on, but turned the voice modulator off, so Felicity could hear him loud and clear. “I’m just as shocked as you are, Felicity,” Oliver stated, and Felicity snorted. She wiped her eyes and lifted her head, but continued sitting. All of this was too much to take on standing. 

“I find that hard to believe. You? A vigilante? I thought you were all girl on the left and right and behind and I run a club and don’t work as hard at my company as I should not brooding bad ass archer,” Felicity said, getting the sentence out all in one breath, shaking her head. “I didn’t ever think vigilantes would be people who could solve their problems with a check, but here we are.” 

Oliver’s lips tightened, probably with distaste, as she was sort of insulting him, but was also praising him at the same time. She stood suddenly, walking to the freezer and pulling out the open mint chip quart she had in her freezer, grabbing a spoon from a drawer. She offered a spoon to Oliver, but he shook his head, and she seated herself back into the chair, ramming the spoon into the frozen goodness. 

“So…” Felicity started after a few bites, when Oliver didn’t say anything. What exactly was she supposed to say? What did he want? “What are you going to do now?” She said around a spoonful. Oliver shook his head, a small smile coming to his lips.

“Invite you to the team, I think, if they’ll let me,” Oliver said, his teeth grinding on the word team. He didn’t seem like the type who liked to share, but Felicity was more focused on the latter part of the sentence. 

“Woah woah, you have a team?” Felicity asked, semi-shocked. She’d never heard of another vigilante who had a team, meaning more than just one or two people. “Just what kind of operation are you running? This is bigger than I think it is, isn’t it?” She continued to push, her voice quieting on the last question.

“I do have a team. Would you like to meet them?” 

#  \- 🖮 -

“I have to get on _that?_ ” Felicity asked skeptically, her eyes looking over the motorbike once more. It was hardcore. The only motorcycle she’d ever rode was a moped in Vegas when her mom rented one out for the weekend since their car was being fixed. The moped was scary enough. “Can’t we just take the bus?” 

Oliver lifted a brow, and Felicity stopped. “Yeah, the vigilante can’t take the bus. Probably a good idea,” Her eyebrows creased. She was already in it. Damnit. “Fine, but I get the helmet,” She gave in, and Oliver’s eyes gleamed with something Felicity was a bit scared of. If he made this worse than it needed to be she would fry every computer in his bar. 

That reminded her, she had absolutely no clue where they were going. When Felicity had agreed to meet his team, he’d just brought her a block down and told her to get on. He hadn’t told her where they’d be going. Didn’t seem very hospitable. Felicity considered bothering him about it, but decided against it. Better not push her luck. 

She got on behind Oliver, and he took her hands, wrapping them around his chest. “Hold tight,” He instructed, and Felicity did so. He revved the handle, Felicity was sure just for show, and then started the gas, zooming off in a speed Felicity felt was not the speed limit. 

She held her arms tight, his leather jacket smooth against her arms. If she’d had any quarrels, they’d have to be left behind now. Which, logically, she should’ve had, considering her past life of being a vigilante. She didn’t feel fear, though. Maybe she was just naive. Maybe she needed to be needed so bad that she let that outweigh the fact that this kind of life never ended well. But she was on his bike now. And she didn’t feel like she was making a bad decision. But her gut was pretty shitty at warnings. 

Dammit all to hell. She liked Oliver. She liked the Vigilantes attention. She liked getting to play Overwatch. She deserved a bit of happiness and enjoyment every now and then. The past isn’t the future, even if it feels like all the past does is repeat itself.

She was willing to think short term for now. She could help his team until she couldn’t. She wouldn’t worry about the couldn’t until it came. It may not have been the best decision, but she was ready to live in the present. Ready to finally say goodbye to the nightmares of Cooper’s death over again. Ready to start again, as someone new, in the present. So what if that someone new included her metahuman powers? They were a part of who she was.

Oliver came to a stop a few minutes later around the back of a building. It wasn’t until Felicity got off that she realised it was Verdant. “We’re meeting the Arrow’s team at Oliver Queen’s nightclub?” She asked skeptically, and his expression remained blank. Felicity decided to quit asking questions, as he didn’t seem to like them.

Felicity stood back and watched as Oliver grabbed the large trash bin and shifted it, exposing a door behind where the bin sat. Felicity snorted, as it wasn’t the best hiding for an entry to a secret lair, if that’s where they were going. Her suspicions were confirmed when Oliver opened the door and descended down a few steps into a hallway. 

Felicity followed, and Oliver pulled the bin back in front of the door before shutting the door and continuing on in front of her. Felicity followed him down a concrete hall, the noise of their feet loud against the quiet. 

Felicity felt like she was intruding on someone’s personal life, as if she was going to a party where she didn’t know anyone and definitely didn’t belong. She took a deep breath. Oliver had stepped out from the hall into a dark room. Felicity couldn’t see much of it, but she stepped besides Oliver, her eyes adjusting to the dark, realising the room was extremely large. It looked like a cave. This was  _ definitely _ a secret layer. 

Oliver grabbed a big rod on the wall and pulled it, lights flickering on, illuminating the room. It had a computer system on the far end, stairs leading up to another floor, a bunch of workout materials, lots of supplies, and  _ lots  _ of arrows. Felicity took it all in. 

Oliver put his boy down on a stand and shed his quill on a table. Did he really have to be so damn quiet? Suddenly, she heard murmuring, and she stepped up near Oliver, looking around one of the tall objects, Felicity assuming it was a workout dummy. 

Two people sat on what looked to be a training mat, eating, food scattered around them. They were both looking at her with dazed expressions, and Felicity’s own widened. Of course. She should’ve figured this out considering she was a certified tech genius. 

“Surprise?” Sara said, shifting towards Felicity, both her and Mr. Diggle’s faces awkwardly confused and baffled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise? lemme know what you think!


	5. Chapter V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, early update! This story's been flying off my fingertips while I definitely should be working on other tasks, so you, my lovely readers, get to enjoy my procrastination. Thing are heating up in Felicity's new life. Enjoy! Xx

**Chapter V**

_ “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that’s as far as any man’s got a right to say.” -John Steinback, the Grapes of Wrath _

“Of course, duh, why would any of the people I befriend in my new normal life be actually normal everyday people? Heaven forbid I actually end up befriending one normal person in this world,” Felicity spouted, crossing her arms over her chest. The powers that be really didn’t want her to be common and usual. Damn. 

“Well, to be fair, I didn’t know I was befriending an ex-vigilante with metahuman abilities,” Sara said, standing up. She looked hesitant, and Felicity gave in, uncrossing her arms and relaxing her face. She wasn’t all that good at the pouty look anyways. 

“Call it a fair trade?” Felicity joked, and Sara patted her shoulder. Oliver’s bodyguard, whom Felicity had met on the occasion’s her and Sara had gone to lunch with Oliver, also stood, the corners of his mouth turning up. “Good to see you again, Mr. Diggle.”

“Just Diggle or John,” the man said, and Felicity nodded. She wasn’t sure what to say, which was rare, but she had good reason to be flabbergasted. This was all a lot.

“Okay, we’ve had introductions. Now, Felicity, I need you to help with this person we’re tracking,” Oliver said. Felicity wondered if he had any friends. He didn’t seem to like socializing, which didn’t fit his tabloid reputation at all. Huh. 

“Yes, indubitably,” Felicity muttered, moving over to the computer set up on one of the desks. It was small and sad, and not at all a good system for the kind of work he was doing. No wonder the Arrow had come to Felicity to ask for her help. “Okay, I’m not going to get much off this equipment. We’ll have to upgrade the system,” Felicity informed. Oliver just gave her a nod and looked to Sara, who sighed and began up the stairs. 

“I’m using your credit card, Ollie,” She spoke from the top of the staircase, raising her voice, causing Oliver’s lip to quirk up. Felicity turned back to the computer, her brain concluding to wait to ask Sara later if she was sure her and Oliver were just work partners. 

So I ran a search through the FBI database for the person you were looking for,” Felicity enlightened, holding her hand out. Oliver plopped the drive he’d pocketed after she had the breakdown into her palm and Felicity plugged it in. “The info you gave me wasn’t extremely specific, so this was the best educated guess. The search resulted in a professional assassin named Ben Turner.” 

Felicity spun in the chair at a noise from Diggle, her eyebrows going up. He didn’t seem like the reaction type. Oliver shifted as well, and the two men’s eyes met, sharing some hidden information. Felicity debated asking, but she still felt like it wasn’t her place. She barely knew them, she wasn’t even really a part of their operation. 

Sara came back through the door, the noise of the club coming with her, and made her way down the stairs, tossing the card at Oliver when she finished. He grabbed it and went through a different door, this one on the same level and across from the hallway they came in through. Felicity looked over at Sara. 

“Okay, seems like we’re done, so now I need to ask something,” Felicity said. Sara gestured for Felicity to continue. “Is there a bathroom here? I’ve had to go since I’ve got here,” Felicity asked, and Sara laughed, motioning for Felicity to follow her. For some reason unknown to Felicity, she felt as if maybe, just maybe, she’d found some new friends.

#  \- 🖮 -

_ Felicity continued stumbling room after room until she finally heard voices at the end of a large hall towards the edge of the building. She could see windows through the opened door but couldn’t see any people. Felicity creeped against the wall towards the door, when she heard a  _ **_bang_ ** _ , and then a quick smash of what sounded like glass.  _

_ She burst through the open doorway. A window was smashed in, glass was everywhere, there were two bodies scattering the floor by the shattered window and- her world paused. _

_ Felicity gasped, running to Cooper’s side. Falling to her knees, she registered what she was seeing, disbelieving. The back of his head was against the chair, slumped at an unnatural angle. His arms were limp dangling from either side of his body. Felicity looked in disbelief at the bullethole, straight through his cranium. A precise shot, at close range, made by someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Almost as if Cooper had been expecting it.  _

_ Felicity turned, promptly vomiting on the floor next to the chair, after seeing him. Grabbing his hand, she noticed something had been smattered in some kind of black marker on his bloody cheeks. Barely able to make out the sloppy mess, she read through blurry eyes the words, “porcelain love frost.” Not understanding the scribble at all, she forced her shaking hand to the tablet on her belt. It pulled up the camera and took a picture automatically, reading what she was trying to do immediately, as it always did. _

_ Standing from her kneeling position, she kissed the top of Coopers hand, his body already cooling. She smeared the blood so it covered the words, and made them harder to make out, kissing his purple lips in a chaste way, so very unlike anything Cooper deserved. She couldn’t leave him, she knew that, but she had no one else to help her. She’d have to carry him herself.  _

_ Just as she was attempting to hoist him up, she heard a crash come from across the hall. Suddenly, as if the world pressed play once more, all the noises around her caught up. The sirens. She heard Police yelling from across the hall, and looked up, seeing a few men running towards her with guns raised. Realizing she would have to leave Cooper behind, she gently placed him back on the chair, grabbed her tablet, and flung her body out the closest, still intact window, glass shattering all around her. _

Felicity blinked, a loud banging coming from the door to the club slamming. Footsteps followed, and Felicity raised her head from its resting spot against the training mat. Diggle’s eye’s lit up. “You do know training mats are designed for training, not naps?” He teased, and Felicity ignored him, sitting up. The nightmare was a usual one, so she shoved it away. 

She wondered if there’d be a day when she could wake up not seeing her dead boyfriend’s skull shot in. Not today, though, and probably not tomorrow either. Felicity sighed, standing. Diggle was sitting in the spare chair at “Felicity’s zone” as Sara had coined it, which was the updated tech desk. 

“What’s got you sleeping on the job?” Diggle examined the screens, trying to figure out what Felicity was doing. She stretched her arms up and then moved over to the desk, plopping down in her chair in front of the three screens. 

“Running these stupid tests trying to figure out who the hell this Ben Turner is and what he’s got to do with the villain’s Oliver’s trying to locate. They all seem to connect back to Turner, but I can’t figure out  _ why _ ,” Felicity grumbled, holding back her powers as to not make the computers think she was angry at them. 

“Can’t you just… tell them to figure it out?” Diggle suggested, and Felicity held in a snort. If only. She was about to open her mouth and ramble about how her abilities didn’t allow computers to play the part of a god, when Oliver stumbled into the layer from the back hall, saving Dig from a lecture. 

He was breathing hard, and limping, and Diggle immediately moved to help lift him up. Felicity grabbed a chair and set it next to the spot where Oliver kept his equipment and the medical supplies. There was some kind of bleeding wound in Oliver’s thigh, knife, if Felicity had to make a guess. 

Diggle grabbed out some bandages and other medical equipment. Felicity watched, chewing at her lip, waiting for Oliver to explain what happened. Diggle was obviously used to it, but Felicity had only been officially part of the team for three or four days, so it still alarmed her when Oliver came into the lair hurt. Which was almost every day. Not an injury as bad as this one, though.

His jaw tightened as Diggle wrapped the bandage around the dressed wound, obviously in pain. Another bang sounded from down the hall and Sara came charging in, dressed in black with the white wig. Somehow, Sara had managed to keep her persona quiet, so Felicity hadn’t heard of it before she joined the team. Sara hadn’t even named herself yet. She just wanted to help Oliver, apparently. 

“They were connected to Turner,” Sara announced, slamming her knives on the table and pulling the wig off. “But now I know who Turner’s working for. Quite the fascinating connection,” Sara continued, and Felicity flew to her desk, her mind at the ready. “The name is China White.”

Felicity didn’t have to do much, just let her power go and thought about wanting to know more about who China White was. The computers whirred to movement, one pulling up a mugshot in the A.R.G.U.S database and another pulling up the FBI’s info from another database, both “borrowed” by Felicity. Oliver stood and hobbled closer to get a better view, though Diggle protested. 

“Did you hack into A.R.G.U.S and the FBI’s databases?” Oliver probed, and Felicity looked up at him skeptically. 

“Is that judgement I’m hearing?” She asked, raising her brows. If he wanted all the information he could get, it would mean Felicity would have to break the law, which she was very good at by now. 

“No, pride,” Oliver countered, and Felicity’s heart fluttered, but she just allowed her eyes to crinkle before swiveling back to the computers. “So, this China White is giving the orders,” Oliver commented. Sara nodded, and nobody asked Sara how she got the information or if it was trustworthy, so Felicity decided to just leave it be. 

“She’s got a hell of a record with A.R.G.U.S,” Diggle noted. “Multiple assassin attempts, some successful, was in captivity until she escaped a few months ago,” He read, and Felicity blew out a breath. 

“Felicity, I need you to find just who she was working for as an assassin. Looks like both A.R.G.U.S. and the Federal Government have done what they can to make it seem like she doesn’t exist,” Oliver said, and Felicity believed him. This woman felt like someone the government wouldn’t want its citizens to know existed.

“I’ll get on it, but it may take some time,” Felicity said, hating having to admit when she couldn’t act fast enough. If only her powers could corrupt the computer’s systems, make them do exactly what she wanted when she wanted. But, alas, her abilitie’s relationship with computers was too symbiotic to corrupt their systems. 

“Fast as you can, Felicity,” Oliver ground out while pushing himself onto his feet. Her instinct told her to go shove him down and force him to rest, but she resisted once more. Oliver wasn’t Cooper, he wasn’t  _ that _ to her, and she could tell he wanted that with Sara anyways. 

Sara didn’t stop Oliver though, just eyed him as he made his way towards the door leading to the bathroom. Guess that ended that conversation. Felicity swiveled back to her computer just as Sara headed after him. 

Felicity sighed, feeling John’s sympathetic gaze on her. She was sure he’d had his share of bossy brooding angry Oliver. She looked down at the computers and pleaded with them to search faster. 

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity resisted the urge to rest her head on her desk and doze off. The work days had become the side piece to the work nights, and she’d started caring less about her I.T. job and more about her night job. It had been like that when she was Overwatch as well, but her day job had been school and a waitress, so it didn’t matter that she wasn’t dedicated. Here, it did, especially after she heard that conversation Ray and Isabel had. 

She was busy fixing a glitch in the security servers when she heard a knock on the side of her cubicle. She looked up to see Ray, holding a stack of papers and his usual awkward face expression. Felicity held in her sigh. “Wow, Hannakuh has come early. Thanks Mr. Palmer.” 

The corner of his mouth lifted as he set the files down next to her computer. Felicity picked the first one up and read through it. “Ms. Rochev wants you to upgrade her system. She feels it  _ isn’t up to date,”  _ Ray mocked, and Felicity grinned. It was good to know her supervisor couldn’t stand some of the higher ups as much as she couldn’t.

“Why does she need me to do it?” Felicity asked, noting that on the page it had requested for her in particular. Ray’s face turned serious, and Felicity bit her lip. That was never a good sign. “Am I getting sacked?” 

“Why would she bring you all the way up there to sack you?” Ray joked, but they both knew Isabel Rochev did have a reputation of enjoying dramatics. “She’s checking all the I.T. employees to see their abilities. Wants to make budget cuts, which means letting off some of the  _ unimportant _ employees,” Ray grumbled out the word unimportant, and Felicity knew what he meant. It was who  _ Isabel  _ thought was unimportant.

“Alright well, I guess the wicked witch beckons,” Felicity said, standing and shutting her computer off manually. Just how was she going to upgrade Isabel’s system with her hands? “If only if she was so easy to get rid of,” Felicity murmured, moving past Ray, who patted her on the shoulder, in what seemed to be a comforting manner. 

Felicity made her way out of the department and to the select lift that went all the way up to the executive offices. She wasn’t sure just what she was about to deal with, but she didn’t care much, as she had bigger things to deal with.    
  


The lift dinged and Felicity stepped inside, pressing the button for the floor Isabel’s office was on. She had to worry about her search for China White, most importantly. Oliver had been all grouchy and rude the night before due to his injury and Felicity’s inability to gather all the information he was looking for instantaneously. For some reason, disappointing Oliver made her feel like she was failing. 

She couldn’t say it was a feeling she enjoyed. Just as the feeling she got when Sara and Oliver did their flirty flirt wasn’t something she enjoyed either. Unwelcome, unnecessary emotions. Hmph.

  
The lift came to a halt and opened, revealing the first floor of swanky higher up offices. There were three floors of them, and it gave Felicity a small satisfaction to know Isabel was at the bottom of those three.

She made her way to the door, Isabel’s name engraved in a metal sign next to it, and knocked. She was ready to get this over with so she could go home and eat mint chip and find a master assassin. There were noises in the room, though it didn’t sound like an argument or conversation, it sounded like something Felicity did not think she’d ever hear from an office. 

A minute or so passed until the door finally clicked open, opening just a little, Isabel’s face appearing behind it. “Ah, Ms. Smoak, quick timing. Give me a second,” Isabel said, closing the door. Felicity sighed and turned, leaning against the wall next to the door. An actual conversation rose from the office and Felicity froze. She recognized that voice. 

She turned the opposite direction, hoping to be invisible and not noticeable as the door opened and then shut quickly. She heard footsteps and cringed. “Felicity?” She slowly turned around. 

“Oliver, fancy seeing you here. I mean here as in, you know, in Isabel’s office, not here as in, the building, since you know, it’s your family’s company,” Felicity looked anywhere but his face.

“Alright Ms. Smoak, come right in,” Isabel said, opening the door. Felicity scooted past Oliver, avoiding his face and made her way into the office. Isabel closed the door and motioned for Felicity to sit in the chair in front of the desk, where Isabel sat all day. Felicity’s mind wandered to what was just going on and how it could’ve been in this chair. Great. 

“Mr. Palmer said you needed a system update?” Felicity affirmed, and Isabel nodded, looking over Felicity’s shoulder. Felicity sighed. Now she really wanted to go home. She got to work, making sure she made it look like she was doing everything with her hands. Not like Isabel knew how computers worked anyways.

When Felicity had finished the update successfully without anything going too crazy 30 minutes later, she looked to where Isabel had sat herself down 5 minutes in. “I’m finished, Ms. Rochev,” Felicity said, and the woman raised her head. Felicity stood to leave. 

“Hold on just a second, Ms. Smoak, I had something I wanted to ask you.” Felicity sat back down, feeling even more uncomfortable, if that was even possible. The day was almost over, and she would go into overtime soon. 

“Yes?” Felicity asked, making sure to keep her voice precise and to keep from rambling. She had a feeling Isabel didn’t prefer that _ unsophisticated  _ talk.

“What is your relationship with Mr. Queen?” Isabel questioned, and Felicity blinked.  _ Her _ relationship with Mr. Queen? He hadn’t just stepped out of  _ her _ office doing heaven knows what. Felicity blinked once more, gathering her thoughts.

“Well, acquaintances, I guess,” Felicity offered up. Was there a right answer to this question? “My friend Sara is close with him, so we go to lunch every week,” Felicity clarified. In full honesty, she felt like that was true. She barely knew Oliver. She just saw his broody Arrow side and his angry growl face when she wasn’t working as well as he wanted her to. She wouldn’t even call them friends honestly.

“Alright, Ms. Smoak, if that is all. Just a warning, Oliver Queen is more than just meets the eye, and being around him could get you in some real trouble,” Isabel said, and then abruptly stood, opening the door and waltzing out. 

Felicity moved slowly, her body feeling heavy. She felt like all eyes were on her as she made her way to the lift and back down to her floor to grab her stuff. That hadn’t been a warning about being Oliver’s friend, it had been a warning on being the vigilante’s friend. 

Just who the hell was this woman?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me, I swear everything has a purpose. Comment what you thought, I swear I get heart flutters every time I see an alert in my inbox :)


	6. Chapter VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody. Sorry this is so late... my school has moved to online learning and I've been adapting. Making up for the wait with an extra long chapter, at least. Hope you're all doing well during these odd and crazy times. Sending my love out. Drop me a comment on what you thought. You can thank me later for all the fluff. Enjoy! Xx

**Chapter VI**

_ “It is hard to describe loss to someone who has never experienced it, impossible to explain all the ways it changes you. But for those who have, not a single word is needed.” -Author Marie Lu (Warcross) _

Felicity really wasn’t looking forward to this damn party. 

“You’ve muttered that out loud at least three times during this ride.” Felicity whipped her head up from her phone to look at Sara. Whoops. “You could at least pretend you want to be a good friend,” Sara said, and Felicity winced. She probably deserved that. “You know how many people would kill to be at an exclusive Queen-Merlyn party?” Sara added, and Felicity no longer felt bad.

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. After her uncomfortable encounter with Oliver doing…  _ stuff  _ with Isabel, they’d been awkward, and she couldn’t blame herself. She hadn’t told Sara though, as she wasn’t sure if it would hurt Sara. But, nonetheless, Oliver was obviously scared Felicity would say something or would rather have Felicity not knowing. It was fine, Felicity wished she hadn’t known or heard.

“Lots of people, I know, but not people like me,” Felicity replied begrudgingly. Sara had a point, as she always did. But Felicity wasn’t some beautiful starling’s top 100 girl like Sara or her sister. She was just Felicity Smoak. And she didn’t mind that, but that normally meant no exclusive parties. 

“Oh shut up. You’re a vigilante who can make computers do your bidding. There aren’t any others like you,” Sara teased.  _ Was _ , Felicity wanted to add, but she guessed she technically was that again, even if she wasn’t out with them under the hood. Er, hoods. 

Sara pulled into the Verdant lot and parked. There weren’t as many cars as there usually was, but there were quite a few more expensive cars. “Private events aren’t free, you know?” Sara said, noticing Felicity’s gaze. “And no, before you ask, we’re not paying to get in. I think we pay with our… night jobs.”

Felicity laughed and bumped Sara on the shoulder. If exclusive parties were the reason they were doing what they did Oliver probably wouldn’t have let them on the team. Sara had reasons. Felicity could tell, but she’d decided she wouldn’t press any of her teammates on just why they were involved in Oliver’s operation, just as they hadn’t pressed her. 

They entered through the front door of Verdant, something Felicity was not used to, as she normally made her way in from the back entrance. The person checking names off a list didn’t even stop them, just made swift check marks. Did they really know Sara that well? Felicity went to say her name, but Sara grabbed her and pulled her in. They knew her too?

“Drink, drinks, drinks,” Sara sang, pulling Felicity to the bar. Tommy was there, mixing. Felicity had a few conversations with Tommy since the first time she’d been to Verdant. She’d accidentally run into him there on too many occasions, so Oliver had deemed her undercover title ‘tech help girl’, which made Felicity none too pleased. 

“Okay, but I’m cutting you off after too many,” Tommy joked, and Sara rolled her eyes. Another girl walked up to the bar and kissed Tommy’s cheek. “Laurel, working,” Tommy said, but the woman, who Felicity recognized as Laurel, just gave him another peck. Felicity had heard lots about Laurel and seen pictures from Sara, but she’d never met her. 

“Felicity! This is my sister, Laurel,” Sara said, while Tommy slammed a drink in front of her. He looked at Felicity and she shrugged, not knowing what to get. 

“The Felicity I’ve heard so much about? So glad to finally meet you,” Laurel said, reaching her hand out. Felicity shook it, realizing Laurel was shaking. But besides that, damn, did the Lance’s have some special beautiful juice put in their DNA? How could there be  _ two  _ perfectly beautiful Lance’s? 

Sara giggled and Tommy snorted. Shit. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” Felicity cringed. “I mean, it’s true.” She laughed nervously and pulled her hand away from Laurel’s. She gave her best glamour smile as Tommy placed a drink in front of her. Not hesitating, Felicity took a swig, anything to avoid more conversation. 

And choked. 

“What is this?” She sputtered out after coughing for what felt like an hour. Sara was patting her back while cracking up at the same time. Tommy grinned and shrugged in an ‘I don’t know” manner. Felicity groaned, turning away from all of them. “Geez, good friends you lot are,” she joked, spotting Diggle standing guard upstairs. 

When she looked back, she noticed Laurel and Tommy were very close, and Tommy was whispering something in Laurel’s ear. Felicity turned to Sara, who winked, before sauntering off towards the other side of the bar. Geez. She looked back to where Dig was and climbed the stairs, appearing next to him. 

“You’re at an exclusive Queen-Merlyn party, Felicity,” Diggle said after she’d stood near him for a few seconds. She rolled her eyes and turned to him. This again? “You probably should find someone to talk to besides one of the security guards.”

Felicity groaned. “Fine, but I’m not the socializing type, if you couldn’t tell,” She pointed out. “Words and I like to do this thing where we can’t figure out what to say without talking in sentence fragments or making unintentional innuendos.” 

Diggle laughed. “Maybe there are some rich dudes who like that,” He offered up. She smiled before walking away from him. He obviously didn’t want her looking weird, talking to a security guard and all.

Felicity wandered around a bit and attempted socialization before realising she was getting nowhere. Sighing, she made her way to a back hallway she knew well and unlocked the security code to an inconspicuous door, shutting it behind her and then meandering down the stairs to the lair.    
  


Her computers lit up, as if to say “hi friend, we’re ready for you” and Felicity couldn’t help but smile. How odd was it that there was an expensive party going on upstairs, and she’d rather be with her tech. She sat down at her comfy chair, immediately relaxing, kicking off the uncomfortable heels. 

She told herself that this was better than being up there. They did have an assassin they were still trying to catch.

She’d been combing through data from an international database, actually having to pay attention, when she heard a bang come from up the stairs. She turned to see Oliver at the top. He looked down, surprised to see her. 

“So, I invite you to my expensive party to have fun with Sara and to make new friends,” He started, walking up next to her desk, “And you end up here. With your computers. Why am I only mildly surprised?” Felicity pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. Looking up at him with a guilty look. 

“Never really been the party type,” She said, feeling it was enough explanation. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. “Woah, that is  _ your _ party up there though. You should take the night off from vigilante-ing,” Felicity advised, but Oliver just tightened his jaw and looked at the info on her computers. Alrighty then. 

He didn’t say anything else, so Felicity just kept combing through pages. So far she’d learned that China White’s list of people she’d assassinated was extremely long, and mostly people she’d never heard of, but were involved in some sense of organized crime. Her talents also included high level thievery and lots of money and bank transfers that occurred during well organized stick ups. A multi-talented woman. 

Felicity decided to use a different approach and search for her name in crimes that involved those other skills, where people may have died. If she could cross reference people she’d murdered with big thefts, robberies, stick ups, and other high scale crimes, she may be able to come up with more. 

Oliver’s breathing was a reminder that she wasn’t alone, but he was quiet, save for the one time he got up to get a drink and then returned. She’d thought he’d left to go to the party, but apparently, she couldn’t be the only one doing overtime. His ego had to do it all, or something like that. 

Suddenly, Felicity stumbled upon something she never thought she’d have to see. While cross referencing crimes related to money, Felicity found a company name that she knew all too well. Sensing her hesitation, she told the computer it, not sure she was prepared for the results. 

A new page opened, and Felicity was face to face with a list of illegal things the company had done. All the money it had stolen from people, all the scams it had run. She knew it, because she had hacked that same sight, three days before her partner was murdered. Swallowing, the computer heard her brain, and the page froze on an image. 

Felicity gasped, a sob escaping her throat, her hands flying over her mouth. She whipped her head to the side, her face ramming into Oliver’s chest. She didn’t want to look at his face. Couldn’t. The way his chest was held, she could feel he was holding his breath. It took a sudden, but it registered. His arms came around Felicity and she couldn’t help but to lean into him. 

She was full on weeping now, her tears silent. She was getting Oliver’s shirt all wet, and probably ruining the nice makeup Sara did. She didn’t care. She barely registered Oliver’s hands enclosing around her back. She hadn’t had this comfort before. But she couldn’t get the picture out of her mind. 

She had disabled the security cameras that night. So who the hell had stopped and taken a picture of her murdered boyfriend?

“Felicity,” Oliver said quietly, his voice smooth. She raised her head, blinking all the tears out of her eyes. He nodded his head to the computers, which had shut themselves off. Squeezing her eyes, Felicity willed them on again, but looked away. She didn’t want to see the image. She couldn’t. She already knew it, it was already engraved in her mind forever. 

“I can’t, I can’t… can’t look at it,” Felicity muttered, shaking her head. She felt like a child throwing a tantrum. Oliver placed a hand on her cheek and raised her face to look at his. His actions were careful. He probably wasn’t used to comforting girls. He didn’t really seem like the cuddly type. 

“Felicity, this could help us find her,” He said, his voice sounding like he was soothing a scared dog. She understood that, she did. But was she ready to uncover more than she wanted? She had accepted that they had just got caught. Was she ready for more? “It could help you get closure,” Oliver said, as if on cue to her thoughts. 

She nodded and looked into his eyes. They were glossy, as if the image was affecting him as well. She knew he had his monsters too. She took the hand on her cheek into her own, leaning into it. It was unrealistic, but she enjoyed the comfort. Comfort he was willing to give. To her. 

She seized suddenly, moving his hand off her cheek and turning back to the computer. Biting her lip, she observed the image, recalled the memory. She was terrified, and her hands were shaking as she reached out to touch the screen, her fingers landing over Cooper’s dead body. 

She zoomed in and she bit her lip harder. It was a high quality photo, so well done. Someone  _ needed _ this photo. She zoomed in on his face, her fingers brushing along the computer screen as if she could actually touch him, feel his skin. 

“Hold on, Felicity. Freeze it there,” Oliver murmured, and Felicity obeyed. He leaned forward, and Felicity realised, in her shock, she hadn’t let go of his hand. She moved to drop it, but Oliver squeezed it tighter. Man, he was breaking all the stereotypes tonight. 

She knew what he was looking at. It was the one thing that still bothered her, that she couldn’t quite place. The words ‘ _ porcelain love frost’  _ were written on his cheeks in black marker. She had no idea what they meant, and she’d looked it up, but she’d decided it was some dumb message left by the murderers, who obviously worked for the company.

“Felicity, what color is frost?” Felicity knit her brows and looked at him, suddenly confused. “What’s porcelain commonly used for?” He asked, and Felicity looked at the picture and then at the computer to the right holding all the information on - oh. 

She bit down on her lip, a warm metal taste coming from it. She ignored it though. It’d been right in front of her. It was a coded message. Oliver pulled out a sticky note from a drawer in the desk. “Rearrange it and it says “Love, China White.” 

It was all too much. It all crashed over her too fast. China White had murdered Cooper.

#  \- 🖮 -

Sara’s arms were warm, and very nice. She would’ve liked to stay in Oliver’s, for platonic reasons, of course, but he’d run upstairs to go grab Diggle and Sara, so Felicity had found herself on the training mat, curled up against one of the dummies. She didn’t know what to do or feel. 

Sara had rushed down and immediately encircled Felicity with love, and Felicity wasn’t ready just yet to leave Sara’s warm embrace. 

“Well then what’s our next move?” Diggle asked, assessing the info and image on the computer. Gosh, Felicity wished she could detach herself like Oliver and Diggle could, but she couldn’t find it in her, especially not with Cooper. 

“I’m going to have to go back and reassess everything about that mission,” Felicity spoke up, her voice cracking on mission. It had been that, though, before it became so much more. It was supposed to be them shutting down some company laundering and scamming money from people. So what did this company have to do with a high class expensive assassin?

Sara stroked Felicity’s hair, and Oliver looked like he wanted to object, but he couldn’t, because he knew Felicity was right. She knew she was right as well, but that wasn’t going to make it easy. Besides, Felicity was just some nerd he’d asked for help. She wasn’t Sara or Diggle, who were necessary in his life and were his friends. 

“Oliver,” Sara said, and Felicity dropped her head back onto Sara’s chest. She didn’t feel like she needed to be involved in the conversation any longer. She could really go for some mint chip. “You need to go back up there. It’s your party. Don’t want to be suspicious,” Sara recommended. Felicity didn’t look up, but Oliver must’ve listened, because she heard his footsteps and a door shutting a few seconds later. 

Sara’s chest was warm and comforting. Wow. She really needed to get someone to cuddle with consistently. Or maybe a nice cuddly pet. It was therapeutic. 

“I should start looking,” Felicity murmured, wiping her eyes and raising her head. Sara just shook her head, and when Felicity’s gaze moved to Diggle, he had the same look on his face. “Really guys, it’s okay, the faster we get this done the better.” 

“No, it can wait for tomorrow. A good night's rest and a clear head will help you focus,” Diggle said, his voice sounding the same as Oliver’s had before. She wasn’t a child! But, she was tired, so she decided not to argue. 

“Let’s get you home, Felicity,” Sara said, pulling Felicity up with her as she stood. Felicity didn’t argue. Her bed sounded pretty damn good. 

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity had tried to sleep, she really had. But she couldn’t get the image of Cooper out of her head. She couldn’t close her eyes without getting angrier at herself for not looking into the murder, for putting it to the side and not investigating. She had thought those words on Cooper’s cheeks odd, but she had been too damn sorrowful and selfish to investigate. 

She needed to find out why. Cooper deserved it. He deserved the closure. Even if it was only from her and not the monsters who killed him, he deserved to rest, and she really didn’t think he could rest until she knew why this insane assassin had killed him and knew that China White couldn’t hurt anyone else. 

She needed to get to the bottom of it. And, yes, Sara and Diggle had been right, a good night’s rest and a clear head would help. So, Felicity found herself in her kitchen, popping some melatonin, sometime in the early early morning, the moon shining, after an hour or so of tossing and turning.

She decided she’d make tea and then turn on yet another of her favorite Supernatural episodes, seeking comfort in the escape of watching her faves save people and hunt things. 

She turned from the counter after turning on the steeper and noticed a black figure at her window. She sighed. How funny was it that she was no longer surprised by a random figure lurking at her window. 

She walked to the window and unhinged it, shoving it open. “You know we’re friends now? You  _ could  _ just knock on the damn door,” Felicity said, and Oliver shrugged, shimmying his way in. Wow, so he definitely wasn’t waiting for an invitation. Felicity shivered, and Oliver screwed the window shut tight once more. 

He turned and pulled his mask off, setting it down on the table. What was he doing, moving in? “I can’t really do much work right now, all of the info is still at the foundry,” Felicity informed. She thought he would’ve been fine with her getting a night’s rest as well. 

“I know,” He said, his tone of voice soft. It was the kind of soft that sent treacherous shivers down her spine. “I’m not here as the Arrow, I’m here as Oliver,” He said, and Felicity held back the remark that he was, in fact, in Arrow uniform. She would let it slide since he was here. She didn’t know what he was here for, but nonetheless, here. 

“I’m steeping some tea, would you like some?” She offered, grabbing down another mug. He nodded and she poured some for him. She felt like she was balancing on uneven ground. “Well, I was about to watch  _ Changing Channels _ , but I don’t take you for a Supernatural guy,” Felicity remarked, and then handed him the mug, moved to sit on the couch. 

He stood in place, waiting, and she patted next to her on the couch. He would wait for an invite to sit on her couch but not wait for an invite to enter her house? She didn’t understand him sometimes. 

He sat, and she took a sip, curling her legs up into her chest. He had sat almost fully across the couch. It was probably a good thing. Platonic was a good idea. She didn’t need another vigilante boyfriend. Not that he would ever consider dating her. Or anything like that. 

“Had a feeling you wouldn’t be able to just sleep it off,” Oliver said after a bit. Wise. He’d probably had his fair share of terrible nights. She met his eyes. They were very blue. She rarely allowed herself to actually look at his face. 

It was so strong, like some renaissance sculpture. He was all hard lines, but somehow his expression was still soft and kind. His eyes were a deep blue. Darker than hers, but still vibrant. He had stubble all along his chin and upper lip. His hair was very short, most likely recently shaved in the past months. He was charming, no other way to put it. 

Felicity swallowed. She’d definitely been staring for too long, but he didn’t seem to mind. She couldn’t read his expression. He’d probably had years of practice in hiding his emotions. It made Felicity curious to know what happened while he was stranded after the famous sinking.

He’d lost a lot, just like her. Yet here he was, waiting patiently, willing to sit with her. Allowing the chance to share, but not pushing it. 

She sipped her tea. “Stability has always been a foreign concept in my life,” She said quietly. Maybe it would be good to get it out, help her move along with the search. Detach. “It was just me and my mom growing up. I mean, mom had a lot of boyfriends,” Felicity laughed drily, “but none of them were ever consistent. She died when I was in college. We weren’t the closest, but she was all I’d ever had, you know.”

Oliver nodded, and his look morphed into understanding. She thought maybe he’d say something about his dad. Guess it was hard to share when your entire life had been laid out for the entire world to know. 

“I was a weirdo. I mean, I still am, but I fit in better because I’m among other weirdos. At MIT I was ahead of most of my classmates. Most of them shunned me because they didn’t like that I was better than them. It wasn’t their fault, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know how to control my abilities at the time, so I struggled to moderate myself. My professors thought I was some sort of child prodigy.”

“Cooper was in some of my classes. He was nice to me, which was rare in my life. He figured out my abilities quickly, especially since I wasn’t good at hiding them. Although, I guess I’m not much better now since you figured them out,” Oliver’s lips curved up, and Felicity had a feeling he wouldn’t tell her how he figured them out any time soon. 

“He had a mission, a purpose, he explained to me. To destroy all the terrible people and organizations that screwed over those who they were supposed to be helping. He called it hacktivism. I was instantly in. Those were the kind of people who threw my mom around while I was growing up, who tossed us aside.” 

Oliver’s jaw tightened. Whoops. She hadn’t meant to sound like that was him or his family. Far as she knew Queen Consolidated treated their employees well and good. It was one of the reasons she chose to work there. Maybe there was something she didn’t know. She decided she’d look into it later. If she had the time or energy. 

“We set up this ‘operation’ to shut the most corrupted top 1 percenters and businesses down. It was a charade, really, to hide our hurt, and to lash out at  _ something _ for how pitiful our lives had been. Looking back, I can’t say truthfully if we even made a difference. Nonetheless, we grew, and became popular. People believe in us. Law enforcement began looking for us. Corporations were scared of us. It was the most attention I’d ever received, and I thrived. Cooper loved me, and we were in the spotlight. I felt recognized, needed.”

Felicity smiled at the flashes of memories. Blowing up tech, watching Cooper return to their apartment successfully, all of her and Cooper’s undercover missions, all their joking, all their jabbing, their random late night movie binges, their tv marathons, hacking into places that could put them in prison for years. 

She frowned, her memories reaching towards the end of their time. “It became too much. We were barely a step ahead of the authorities. We were about to graduate. Corporations were becoming too cautious. 1 percenters upped their security. People were beginning to wonder if we had too much power, if our goals were becoming corrupted the bigger we got.” 

“I wanted out, but Cooper was riding on the high. He had become more distant. It was less about me and more about what my abilities could do for him. I still loved him, it wasn’t something I could turn off, but I was becoming skeptical. When I confronted him, he denied everything I said, said some rude things, and I didn’t have it in me to stop. I’ve always been over trusting.” 

“So we agreed that we'd keep going until we felt we’d done a good job. Of course, there was no end in sight. There will always be corrupt people who believe they are more than others in this world. I just thought maybe he’d… I- well I guess I don’t know what I thought. God, I’m so stupid.” Oliver shifted.

“Being in love isn’t the same as stupidity, Felicity,” Oliver reminded. His face was knowing. “It may cause you to do things that could be considered stupid, but love makes us unable to know the difference.”

Felicity met his eyes. She licked her lips and took a long sip of her tea, turning his words over in her head. He was right. But, she was blind to her stupidity, and she didn’t think it was fair to blame that on love.

“Anyways, his… death,” Felicity choked out, “was supposedly one of our last takedowns. I was going to talk to him after it. And, if he said no, I was planning on ending things. But, he was murdered. So, I cut my losses, decided it wasn’t anything more than something petty and moved. Started a new life. Hoped for normality.” 

Oliver swallowed, and Felicity watched his jaw at work. “And I took that normality away from you,” Oliver said, causing Felicity to grimace. She hadn’t meant to make him feel that way. But, he had. It wasn’t like she was angry about it. She’d still made the choice, even if it was a forced choice.

“I have a knack for trouble, and a horrible sense of normality. You can’t take all the credit,” Felicity teased. Instinctively, she scooted closer to Oliver. She couldn’t help it. He didn’t budge, so she hoped he was okay with a little closeness. “Besides, it’s Sara’s fault I met you anyways.” 

Oliver let out a chuckle. Felicity looked down at her tea. She was expecting tears to come, but they didn’t. She’d cried too much lately. Her tear ducts were empty, apparently. Slowly, Oliver wrapped an arm around Felicity’s shoulder. She leaned into his chest, savoring his touch. 

She had no idea what she was doing. His touch was warm, and his grip was tight but not restraining. It was comforting. A few single tears began swelling up in her eyes, a fat droplet rolling down her cheek. Oliver used his other hand to wipe it away. She looked up at him. His eyes were sad. He seemed to be reliving a different memory, one Felicity didn’t have access to.

Whichever tabloid had said Oliver Queen wasn’t sentimental obviously hadn’t poured their life story out to him with hope of a comforting touch.


	7. Chapter VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey readers. Sorry it took a few weeks to get this out. I think I have inspiration and then it decides to disappear. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys! Stay safe! Xx

**Chapter VII**

_ “Broken isn’t the same as unfixable.” -Author Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles) _

“Felicity, come here a second,” Diggle said, and Felicity looked up from her processing computers and back at two very shirtless men. Diggle was on his phone looking at something just having finished some workout, and Oliver was on the salmon ladder, showing off. She rolled her eyes. Why did Diggle have to make her look at Oliver? It was hard enough to  _ not _ look when he was that…muscly. 

“What do you need?” She asked, getting up and walking over. “Not that I can really help with anything in this area of expertise considering I don’t think I’ve ever been to a gym,” Felicity added, hoping Diggle wasn’t going to make her run drills. Oliver hopped another ring on the ladder and Felicity looked towards the phone Diggle was angling at her. 

“You know her?” He asked, and Felicity looked closer. It was a grainy zoomed in photo of Isabel Rochev, of all the people, at some private event. Felicity nodded, looking quickly from Oliver to the phone. God, please let him not come down anytime soon. “The photo came from my friend over at Argus. I want you to blow it up on your screen, if what I think is happening is happening.” 

Felicity moved back to her screen and Diggle followed. She pulled up the message from Diggle and blew up the image, the quality much better on her large computer. It was a pretty grainy photo, probably pulled from a surveillance camera. Why was ARGUS of all organizations looking through private security tapes? Felicity ignored the question and instead observed the image. There were lots of other people meandering around and chatting, but Isabel was chatting with one particular woman. 

“What is Isabel Rochev doing with China White?” Felicity jumped at Oliver’s gruff voice sounding behind her other shoulder. She glared at him, receiving a small smile in return. After the moment they shared the other night, Felicity felt much closer to Oliver than she had been before. 

“When was this from?” Felicity asked, and Diggle pulled up his phone, typing quickly. She wasn’t sure who his source was, but he obviously had their phone number. Odd. “What event was this, anyways?” Felicity added, confused on how China White would be able to attend an event without getting arrested. 

“She’s a high class assassin, Felicity. Most people have never heard of her,” Oliver informed, and Felicity looked down sheepishly. Her face really was an open book. Or maybe her and Oliver were getting closer. The thought sent a shiver down her spine, and Felicity had to look back at the image to refocus herself. She was looking at the women who murdered her ex-boyfriend. There was no time for mooning over Oliver. 

“It was a few months ago, just after she escaped from custody. Apparently it was some big auction held for some industry Queen Consolidated had just bought. Felicity wouldn’t have been in Starling yet,” Diggle said. How could China White have been in Starling when she was murdering Cooper in Boston? “Assassin’s travel, Felicity. It’s not like there’s a local assassin for hire in every city.”

Geez. Was this just bully Felicity time? It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know much about assassins. Her days as a vigilante weren’t focused on this type of illegal activity. “Is there a change Isabel was just making small talk?” Felicity asked, though it seemed unlikely. She didn’t want to read into things if she didn’t have to, though. 

“Why would China White be at a Queen Consolidated event?” Oliver asked, and Felicity raised her brows. Oliver probably should’ve been the one to know that considering it was his family’s company. 

“Maybe she wasn’t there to kill anyone? Just gather intel? She had just escaped, and she obviously had some mission,” Felicity swallowed, “since it had something to do with murdering Cooper,” Felicity breathed out. She could normalise this. That helped with grief, right?

“Should we add Isabel to the list?” Diggle asked, both him and Felicity looked at Oliver. The list seemed to continuously grow, but there were too many suspects. Too many pieces. Too much to take in. Felicity let her head fall to her desk, making a small  _ thud _ . 

“Might as well. It grows everyday, anyways,” Sara said, and Felicity looked up to see her friend descending down the stairs. Sara was always a light. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I hate that bitch,” Sara said, patting Oliver’s chest and then making her way to Felicity. Felicity spun in her chair and gave Sara a hug around her waist, too lazy and tired to stand. 

“Everything okay up there?” Oliver asked, and Sara nodded. They had decided they’d switch off being up at the club, since Sara was technically a worker there now. Made for a better cover story. Felicity had a role too, she was the token IT person for the club. Not a waitress, like Sara, but she’d take it. 

“Just bored out of my mind,” Sara said, pulling up one of the chairs next to Felicity. “So our obnoxious QC overseer knows White?” Sara asked, and Felicity nodded, filling Sara in. Oliver scribbled in his small black book, probably adding new info and Isabel’s name.

“Alright, back to work Felicity. We’re onto something,” Oliver ordered, and Felicity groaned, turning back to her computer. So much for Oliver being Mr. Nice Guy. 

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity was ready to quit her job. She was done with it. But she was pretty sure she said that every night. 

She stopped in with Ray after finishing her work for the day, later than everyone else, per usual, and then made her way to the lifts. It was always odd to be at Queen Consolidated when it was near empty. Too many floors and halls and not enough people. 

The bell dinged and the doors opened, revealing none other than the woman Felicity was about to spend the night investigating. Didn’t they have their own personal higher up lifts, so they didn’t have to use the lifts for the Plebeians like herself? 

Felicity entered, moving as far away from Isabel as she possibly could. She pulled out her phone, hoping to make herself look as if she was focused on something else, just as Isabel coughed. 

“Ms. Smoak. Working late? Hope you’re not sitting around just trying to get overtime,” Felicity sighed and almost put her phone away, before thinking better of it, and turning on her voice memos. She would’ve grinned at her cleverness if Isabel hadn’t been such a pain. Oliver wasn’t the only one who could be sneaky. 

“I get more work than the other folks in IT. Sometimes I can’t work as fast as I normally do,” Felicity informed. “Not that I work inhumanly fast or anything, I’m just a very hard worker, which means I get more work done than others… also I don’t like taking breaks,” Felicity bit her tongue. So much for sounding cool on the recording. 

“Hmm. And where will you be headed after work?” Isabel asked, just as the lift dinged and the doors revealed the nearly empty lobby, save for the adorable old janitor. Isabel didn’t set her free though, stepping in front of her before she could book it out the swiveling doors. Damn being polite to superiors. 

“Home. It’s late, and I’m not much of a socialiser,” Felicity said slowly. She was pretty sure it was against etiquette to ask workers what they were doing with their free time. 

“So, you won’t be headed to your little crushes swanky club?” Isabel probed. Felicity frowned. That was definitely not an appropriate comment. “I’ve seen you at Mr. Queens club. I do get out occasionally,” Isabel said, matter of fact. Felicity blinked. She didn’t recall ever seeing Isabel there. Did she know? 

“Well, Sara takes me their sometimes so-”

“Sara!” Isabel exclaimed, cutting Felicity off. “Sara Lance? You do know she’s Oliver Queen’s on off girlfriend, don’t you?” Isabel said, though it felt less like a question and more like a “you poor fool” statement. Felicity just nodded slowly. “Well, don’t get too in over your head, Ms. Smoak,” Isabel said, almost threat-like.

Felicity breathed out, watching the doors swivel behind Isabel’s sashaying body. The computer next to her sparked, and Felicity startled. The janitor looked at her. “She’s a devil, that one.”

Felicity smiled and waved bye to the man before making her way out the front door. It was dark, she was hungry and now irritated, and on top of all that, she was probably late for her bus. 

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity decided to take the back entrance. Now that she knew Isabel had seen her at the club, she wasn’t taking any chances. So, there she found herself, sneaking around the back of the large building, like she was some spy. It definitely was pulling back the vigilante in her. Her muscles were reading to sneak the instant she thought about it. Good to know she still had some of it.

When she finally made it into the walkway to the Foundry she let out the breath she’d been holding for way too long. It seemed unrealistic Isabel suspected her of anything besides being into Oliver Queen, but she wasn’t sure what the woman knew. 

And she wasn’t. Into Oliver Queen, that was. At least, not at the moment. 

She made it to the end of the walkway, pulling the giant shift bar up to turn the lights on. No one else was there, which seemed odd, since her team wasn’t the type to take nights off. She shrugged it off and made her way to her setup, setting her purse down, her computers waking up and logging in at her presence. 

The one reliable source of joy in her life. Computers. Joy. 

She pulled her phone out of her bag and texted the others, letting them know she was present, getting to work, and that she had a weird recording on her phone she wanted to share, but it wasn’t urgent. She sent the messages. She didn’t think Isabel’s blubbering was urgent, and if they all were off doing other things, she didn’t want to force them in. 

She got to work, pulling up all the folder containing all the files she could find on Cooper himself and his murder. There were quite a few. The force had worked to cover it. They didn’t want anyone knowing who Cooper was or that some vigilante had been murdered on a heist. 

Felicity had hacked in and stole the information, of course. Her followers needed to know what happened, why they’d stopped. It had been an overbearing, panicked time. Felicity leaned back in her chair as all the data loaded, the system checking each file for any info on the reports that seemed different than what actually happened.

_ She wished she’d grabbed her damned grappling hook. Her mind racing a mile a second, she shoved her gloved hands against the wall of the building, grasping for anything that could save her from her death. There was nothing, of course, her hands only sliding against the smooth glass side of the building. Until, suddenly, her left hand caught on something. Opening her eyes with surprise, she surveyed her surroundings, realizing her hand had caught on some weird jutted out piece of concrete that went around the entire building. And who ever said modern architecture was useless and ugly?  _

_ The weird wedges of concrete continued all the way down the building, which Felicity estimated to be about 15 feet or so. In a not-so-graceful attempt at a rock-climbing like method, Felicity made her way down the side of the building. For reasons she didn’t want to stay to question, none of the police cars were on this side of the building. Probably had something to do with the main entrance being on the other side.  _

_ Reaching about 3 or 4 feet up, Felicity jumped, landing in an awkward, unsteady crouch, her ankle buckling, causing her to fall onto her back. Her tablet’s screen had cracked, but it was still alive, so she’d fix it later. She didn’t want to think of anything else. Couldn’t think of anything else. As she ran in the direction that didn’t have sirens, Felicity couldn’t think of much, her pacing off, her feet wobbly. The only thing she could see clearly was her boyfriend, a bullet through his skull.  _

_ When she’d made it back to the apartment her and Cooper had been living in and running their operations through, she had consistent, sloppy, silent tears falling down her cheeks. She was in shock. She knew it too. She was reasonable, a certified genius by most people’s standards. But even reason couldn’t stop the uneven beat of her heart and the falling tears. _

_ The computer setup immediately sparked to life. She turned on the police’s radio channel on the furthest computer to the right. Cooper had figured out how to listen in without them knowing and broadcast it to their computer a while back. From their computer’s they could record it and send it to anyone they wanted. He was clever, Cooper. Cooper. Her heart seized, and she choked on her tears, leaning down on the desk. _

_ Cooper would tell her to finish the task at hand. No case left open. She ripped off her gear, stripping the uncomfortable leather off piece by piece, pulling the full face mask off last. It clattered to the ground, the noise too loud in Felicity’s head. She shivered from the sudden loss of warmth. The clothes were too much. Too constraining.  _

_ The police radio was reciting the situation. They were probably transporting Cooper’s body at the moment. Limp. Cold. Dead. The words were too descriptive. Too real.  _

_ Felicity’s mind whirled commands off, a mental list of what needed to be done. The computers worked their magic. Felicity was grateful for her ability at that moment. She didn’t want to look at the photos, or too read the words. It couldn’t be real.  _

_ She fell to the ground, laying flat on her back. The ceiling was as gross and old as it had always been. There were still pictures on the wall of her and Cooper. Their diplomas, framed and hanging on the wall. An empty beer can next to Cooper’s favorite chair.  _

_ She kept ordering things off to the computers, not wanting to look at them. The police continued on. She never thought she’d hear anything like this on the radios. Now they were just a curse. She thought of the site her and Cooper used to share their accomplishments and take requests.  _

_ She thought of what had happened. How this was the end of the road for them. How they had hoped to exploit this company forever, but that they blew up their servers, and that was enough damage. How she was done with the violence. How there would always be evil. How terrible people would always exist. How it was impossible to continue this alone.  _

_ And then she imagined herself pressing the post button, just before the full, violent, loud, ugly crying fit overtook her.  _

She stumbled awake at a beeping on her computer. Blinking tears out of her eyes, she found a figure she was beginning to know a little too well seated next to her. She blinked at him a few times, but he was focused on something in his hand. Felicity realised it was her phone. He must’ve been listening to the recording.

Awkward. She turned to the computer, looking to see what the beeping was. Clicking it, she saw that the system had finished it’s scans and had found a few oddities. She read through them, most not sticking out. The only one that did stick out was from a file she had grabbed from the CIA. The text read, “possible: connected to the White murders and the Unidac’s exposure.” 

Felicity scrunched her lips. Unidac, she knew that name. It was one of the corporates she and Cooper had gone after. It had taken a while, and they’d eventually given up at taking the whole thing down, instead exposing what the company did to the world. Smuggling of expensive and exclusive drugs. They’d gone after it because some of the drugs had killed innocents due to their extremities. Also because it was illegal and corrupt.

She went to tap Oliver, but she found him watching her. She hadn’t even heard him take the headphones out. He had an unreadable expression, as he always did, but it felt hesitant, which was odd for Oliver. He was normally extremely decisive. 

“How many times has Isabel approached you?” Oliver asked, and Felicity knit her brows. She wasn’t quite sure why this was important, but Oliver sounded as if this was a big deal. 

“Twice. This time and another time,” Felicity said. “The other time was when I saw you.. Uh.. I mean.. You know… and it was supposed to test if I was useful to the company but it felt more like an interrogation,” Felicity elaborated, biting her lip. She really couldn’t talk in complete sentences when she was uncomfortable. 

“She knows,” Oliver said, before letting out a string of curses and slamming his hand on the table. Felicity jumped back, surprised at the sudden outburst. She scooted a few inches away, trying to give him space. 

“Knows what?” Felicity asked just as Oliver stood, his hands clenched in fists. “Knows what, Oliver?” Felicity repeated, standing as well. He moved to the training area, throwing one of the dummys to the ground abruptly. Felicity instinctively looked to the door to the club. They tried to keep quiet down here. 

“Felicity, you have to know, I didn’t think she’d… I thought she’d stop at…” He sat, right in the middle of the training mats, and Felicity froze. All of his movements were so sudden and disheveled. It wasn’t what she was used to. She gave him a few seconds before sitting close to him, giving him room. He obviously had something he wanted to share. 

“It’s ok, Oliver,” She attempted. She wanted to do something. Was touching breaking boundaries? She wasn’t the best at comfort, especially when she didn’t know what her limits were. She placed a hand on Oliver’s back, scooting closer to him on the mat. He looked at her, his eyes watery. 

“The day you saw me leave her office, I wasn’t in there doing what you assume,” Oliver explained, and Felicity bit her lip. “Isabel figured out my secret a few weeks back. She promised to blackmail me unless I…” He trailed off, and Felicity placed her free hand on her mouth. Oliver wouldn’t. 

Oliver looked down at his hands. He seemed ashamed, almost. She’d never seen him ashamed. She needed to stop expecting him to be certain ways, apparently. She didn’t know Oliver. Not well enough. It wasn’t her place to judge. 

“I’d been doing what she asked for because she said she’d expose Sara, and I couldn’t do that to Sara. We’d been through too much on the island and Sara deserves… well she deserves better than prison, that’s for certain,” Oliver continued, and Felicity heard the hesitation. His feelings for Sara were still there. If Felicity wasn’t so freaked already, she probably would’ve been sad.

“So Sara doesn’t know,” Felicity filled in. She kept her voice quiet, trying to stay soothing. Oliver was doing whatever Isabel wanted so she wouldn’t announce to the world that Oliver was the Arrow and his teammate was Sara. It was self-sacrificing and noble. She knew Oliver that well to know that sounded an awful lot like him. 

“And now she’s suddenly figured you out. Or she’s close. It won’t take much. I don’t know how she found out in the first place, or how she keeps figuring things out, and I didn’t think it was a big deal until she showed up in that photo with White, and now this.”

Felicity rubbed Oliver’s back. He looked like he needed it, and he didn’t pull away. Score. She wasn’t too bad at this. She seemed to be figuring out how to be human again every day. 

“You’re going to have to tell them,” Felicity said, and Oliver nodded, looking at her. She could read that look. “I’m an adult. I got on that motorcycle willingly. I would’ve kicked you out when you broke into my apartment earlier if I didn’t want to help. So save it,” She ordered softly. She wasn’t in the mood to hear it, anyways. 

“Felicity, you’ve been through so much… I didn’t mean…” He tried anyways, and Felicity hit him in the chest lightly. She gave a half-smile. 

“We’ve all been through shit. Don’t sell yourself short. Now, come look at my computer, I think I found something,” She said, changing the topic. She went to stand, but Oliver stopped her by grabbing her arm. He pulled her into an embrace. 

Felicity froze, dumbfounded, before wrapping her arms around his back. She’d done something right, obviously. He took a few seconds too long to release her for it to be platonic, and Felicity’s heart decided that was a good reason to palpitate. She sighed happily and then pulled away before she did anything she’d regret. 

“Thank you,” Oliver said, and Felicity nodded, smiling fully. More human everyday.


	8. Chapter VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fact that I post and just disappear for a few months only to come back and post rly adds to my mysterious factor.  
> I'm jk, thanks for waiting and hello to anyone new. Hope everyone's doing well and staying safe. Enjoy! Xx

**Chapter VIII**

_ When it’s time to live and let die / and you can’t get another try / something inside this heart has died, you’re in ruins.” -21 Guns, Green Day _

Felicity didn’t want to be the one who had to break the news to Sara or Diggle. She hadn’t even wanted to be there when Oliver did it. He’d begged, but she’d firmly said he’d have to be the one to do it, though she’d be there when he told. She loved Sara to death, and this was gonna kill her. And Felicity didn’t know enough about their relationship to know what to say. 

Sara’s reaction was on par with what Felicity had expected. Sara had shoved Oliver and then stormed outside, and Dig was sitting in the corner brooding. Felicity had just sat down in her chair and pretended to work. The computer was whizzing with info, but she wasn’t paying attention. 

Now they had White  _ and  _ Rochev to deal with. Most likely, Rochev was in with White. Felicity just needed to figure out why. 

“When did Isabel join the company?” Felicity asked, and Oliver looked at her. His eyes were red, but he hadn’t shed any tears. He hadn’t gone after Sara, and Felicity kept her mouth shut. Maybe she should’ve? She just didn’t know how to do this friend thing well, and she didn’t want to hurt Sara.

“She had an affair with my father when she was just a regular worker. Before we went on the Gambit,” Oliver said, pushing himself up off the chair. Felicity frowned. She wasn’t surprised, but that eliminated her theory that she’d joined after White had broken out. 

“Do you think she wants QC for herself?” Felicity asked, picking up a pen and chewing on it, needing something to do. Dig got up and headed to the back rooms without saying anything. Felicity longed to go after him as well. At least with Dig she knew he probably needed the space to unpack.

Oliver sat in the chair next to hers that they all sat in when they felt like peeking at her work over her shoulder. Felicity turned to her computer and pulled up the info she had gathered on Isabel so far. The silence dragged on as she scrolled through the info. She bit her lip, stopping words from tumbling out her mouth.

Proceeding with caution into unknown waters, Felicity swallowed. “Should you go talk to John or Sara?” Felicity half asked, half suggested, watching the computer sort through different files on Rochev. Oliver shifted and stood, walking the same direction Dig had walked a moment ago, the door to the back rooms closing loudly behind him. Felicity sighed and rested her head on the empty space of the desk next to the keyboard. In over her head.

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity flicked a piece of hair out of her face, attempting to focus on the report she was writing. Ray had requested she write a report about Q.C.’s servers and things that could be improved about them. Ray had said she was the best and seemed to know systems better than most. Ha.

So she’d accepted, because she felt bad when he had so much work he had to do overtime, and had decided to work on it during regular hours instead of overtime. She was a bit scared to get caught with Isabel again, though she wouldn’t admit it aloud. Even though she could kick ass in a fight, Isabel was a different type of scary.

“You’re late,” She heard, and looked up, once again flipping the annoying hair out of her face. She hadn’t had time to shower earlier, since she’d fallen asleep at the foundry after Oliver’s announcement and woken up just before work. She was lucky she kept a change of clothes in her car for late nights like those.

Sara stood, looking irritated. How could features so beautiful look angry? Felicity almost laughed in excitement. After the night before she’d feared she lost her best friend. As much as she enjoyed Oliver’s company, he wasn’t close to the joy she felt in Sara’s company. Oliver’s company caused her too much stress, anyways. 

“Lunch! I’m so sorry Sara, I didn’t even realise,” Felicity groaned, checking her clock, which showed 10 minutes past the beginning of their lunch break. She stood and grabbed her purse, walking next to Sara to the lift. “Where to today? Is it big belly day?” Felicity asked. 

“No, not today. I can’t… I don’t want to be around Oliver right now,” She murmured as the two shuffled into an almost full lift. Felicity held her purse and looked down as the lift whirred to life. She didn’t like being in the middle of things like this. Part of the reason she’d avoided friends all her life. Oh well. If she was going to be Sara’s friend, that meant she couldn’t peel off whenever she felt like it.

She shuffled out when the doors opened, catching up to Sara. Damn, the woman consistently walked as if on a mission. “Alright, fine by me. I spent all night sleeping at the foundry anyways, so I don’t need to chat with them,” Felicity stated, and Sara rolled her eyes, pushing one of the doors to the building open for them. 

“Felicity, you work too hard,” Sara scolded, and Felicity blushed. She got into it when need be. She hadn’t had the chance to tell them about Unidac though, after Sara had burst out and Oliver had followed Dig. She’d save it for tonight. Some good news to lighten the mood. Er… hopefully good news. 

Sara made her way down the street towards one of the cafes they regularly ate at, Felicity’s shorter legs pushing to catch up. “Says you, out all night,” Felicity shot back, smiling. “How are you though? For real. You know if you want to scream I’m all ears. Or… I’ve got ears. I mean, I’m your friend so I’m here to listen,” Felicity sputtered as they entered the cafe. 

They took their orders, and sat in the high stools looking out through the big windows to the bustling street. Sara had said she’d liked sitting here as she could see all threats on all sides. Felicity had thought it odd at the time but it made sense considering what Sara had gone through. 

Sara went and grabbed their drinks, and then sat down next to Felicity. Felicity waited, unsure what they would converse about. Now that they were at the Foundry every night, it felt as if they’d worn all conversation out. Was their jobs and their night jobs all the two ladies did? How sad. 

“I know I can’t be mad because he did it to protect me… but… I mean, he could’ve told me at least,” Sara sighed out. Felicity nodded. She agreed with that point. Of course, it had been hard for Oliver to share, but he should’ve let Sara know. “We have a complicated relationship, Oliver and I.” Sara stated, and Felicity froze. Was she finally going to get the details?

“Yeah, I’d noticed,” Felicity said, and Sara raised a brow. “I mean, I noticed that the two of you have a little something something. Er, a past relationship and a lot of sexual tension. Frack. Shouldn’t of included that part.” Felicity cringed and sipped her drink to shut herself up. The barista brought out the food and Felicity bit in. 

Sara smiled, her eyes glossed over in a memory. She ate a bite of her salad and then looked at Felicity, her reminiscing over. Felicity couldn’t help but wonder what Sara’d been remembering. Something to do with Oliver’s lips, no doubt. Not that Felicity knew anything about Oliver’s lips. 

“On the island we were together,” Sara said, and Felicity sipped her drink. She’d assumed that much. “I almost died. Oliver thought I did. I didn’t see him again until we were both back in Starling. We reentered our relationship the minute I returned.” 

Felicity swallowed a bite. She knew they’d had a previous relationship. Diggle had mentioned that. She prepared herself, readying her face for no reactions. “Are you in one now?” 

Sara looked down at her food. “I broke it off. After what we went through- what  _ I  _ went through, I couldn’t continue. He reminded me too much of the island. Too many bad memories,” Sara explained. Felicity worked her jaw. She had no idea what to say. She wasn’t on the island. 

“I get it,” She finally said. Sara looked up. “I mean, to some extent. If Cooper hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have been able to be with him after our days as vigilantes. It would’ve been too many bad memories I would want to shove away and forget. I actually wanted to break up before he was murdered.” 

Sara nodded, and then attempted a smile. “Seems we both got messed up hearts, then,” She declared, and Felicity smiled fully at that. 

“Seems like we do,” Felicity repeated, clinking her coffee mug with Sara’s. 

#  \- 🖮 -

Felicity walked past the bouncer at the club, ignoring the glares from the people waiting in line. She was always astonished by how many underage people waited in line. Did they think the bouncer was that stupid?

She ignored her fleeting thoughts and headed to the bar, giving Tommy her usual signal. He nodded and went to work. Since she hadn’t slept the night before, and she needed to tell the team about Unidac, she was pulling out the big guns.

“Triple espresso for the lovely I.T. girl,” Tommy announced, placing the cup in front of her. Felicity grinned at him and took a swig. “I don’t know why or how you do it, Smoak, but I admire your fearlessness.” Felicity rolled her eyes and continued to down the espresso, cringing at the gritty taste. She slammed it down as if it was a shot glass and opened her mouth, but Tommy smiled. “I know, put it on Oliver’s tab.” 

She saluted him before exiting the bar and making her way back to the foundry entrance. Shooing off a couple getting a little too excited near the doors, Felicity made sure the coast was clear before punching in the code and sneaking into the foundry. 

“Oliver, I don’t want to hear the excuses. I said I forgave you. What more do you want?” Sara’s voice. Felicity peered down to see them standing a bit too close near the cases of weaponry. Oliver was half suited up, but she’d caught him before he went out. 

Did she want to interrupt this, though? She decided she’d save her best friend and made her way down the stairs, noisy enough so they’d notice her. Oliver glared at her as if she was Rochev waltzing into the lab, but Sara looked like Felicity had just bought her a new pet puppy. 

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” Felicity asked, willing her mouth to close and her not to babble some useless crap at the wrong time. 

“No, you’re fine. Oliver and I are done talking, anyways,” Sara said, though she was looking directly at Oliver when she said it. Felicity nodded and boosted her system, placing her purse down and plopping into her chair. Sara stole the observer chair and then leaned back. “Why do you smell like coffee?”

Oliver sighed, moving next to the computers, facing her. “Can I assume there will be another triple espresso on my tab tonight?” Oliver questioned in a scolding voice. Felicity blushed, and bit her lip. “Felicity’s made a habit of ordering espresso’s from Tommy at ungodly hours of the night when she needs to boost her energy, and then placing all of them on my tab.”

“That’s my girl,” Felicity heard, and she grinned when she saw Dig walk in from the hallway leading out back. She’d been worried after he stormed off the night before. Dig clapped Oliver on the back. “Nothing you can’t handle, trust fund?” Diggle teased, and Oliver rolled his eyes. 

“Alright, I have news,” Felicity announced, glad to see that everyone was at least on speaking terms with everyone else, even if Sara and Oliver were still tense. “Yesterday I was running the files on Cooper’s murder and found this,” Felicity brought up the CIA file she had acquired and blew it up so they could read it. 

“Did you two target Unidac?” Dig asked, and Felicity nodded. 

“We never exposed much, though. A really well run system. Illegal drugs, intense ones too. Killed many people, but that didn’t stop wealthy folk or addicts from buying them. Cooper and I had them on our hitlist, but all we did was expose them for having a drug running part of their company with what little evidence we could get. Some believed us, some didn’t. We didn’t feel it to be a big deal, and no one identified us or came after us.”

“No one that you _ knew  _ of identified you,” Oliver said, and Felicity looked at him. 

“Maybe. But, we had a wonderful system, government grade. If someone had found out who we were, I would’ve known,” Felicity said, but it didn’t come out confidently. Maybe he was right. But her and Cooper were so good, there was a reason they’d lasted as long as they did without their identities revealed. 

“Felicity, everyone makes mistakes,” Sara said, placing a hand on Felicity’s back. Felicity looked at Sara, and the woman gave an encouraging look. Computers didn’t make mistakes though. And Felicity didn’t either, not when she could read computers, meaning… 

“Shit.” Felicity murmured, and everyone looked to her. Of course. That’s why Cooper was dead, and Felicity wasn’t. They’d figured out who Cooper was. That he’d been her partner. Who the man behind the mask was. But if they knew who Cooper was, didn’t that mean…

“Talk to me, Felicity,” Oliver said, and Felicity blinked, her mind snapping out of it’s continuous whirring. Oliver’s face was concerned. Enough that Felicity decided it was better to get it out. 

“White knows I’m Overwatch. If the Unidac exposure and Cooper’s murder are connected, and White murdered Cooper, and she learned who he was from some trace Unidac used to hack our system, then she learned who both me and Cooper were behind the masks.” 

Dig breathed out, and Oliver looked at the computer with those intense eyes. Felicity leaned back in her chair and placed her head on Sara’s shoulder. Was she gonna get murdered too? But, the real question was, if they knew she was Overwatch, why hadn’t they come after Felicity Smoak yet? 

“They must’ve thought their  _ warning _ of Cooper’s dead body was enough to make me stop? Thought that I didn’t need to be eliminated? Yuck. Eliminated. Now I sound like I’m in an action movie. Frack. I think I am. Do you think I have a hitman after me?” Felicity spilled out. She couldn’t help it, she was nervous. Hard to control her tongue when her nerves felt like they were short circuiting. 

Dig snorted. “Well, if there’s a hitman after you, you’re going to need a bodyguard,” He suggested, and Felicity groaned. Exactly why she hadn’t wanted to tell them. 

Oliver put a hand up, sensing her argument. “No, they could still come after you. You’re just lucky they haven’t yet. Until we figure out why they wanted you to stop and murdered Cooper to do so, you can’t be out by yourself.”

Felicity groaned again, louder this time. Sara patted her back and stood up. “Don’t worry, you can just spend a lot of time with your best friend,” Sara said, and Felicity’s face lifted. If Sara was her bodyguard, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. “I’m off. Someone’s gotta do field work.”

Oliver nodded, but didn’t say anything. Felicity stood to go up to the club to get another espresso. She watched Dig follow Sara out the back door, armed as usual. She began to make her way towards the stairs, but Oliver grabbed her arm. 

“Really? I can’t go flirt with my favorite bartender?” Felicity complained, pouting her lip. Oliver just gave a quick shake of his head. Felicity sighed and pulled out of his grip, sitting back down at her desk. 

“I’ll get you one.”

Felicity looked at him, grinning. She was too good. Even Oliver fell for her puppy eyes and sad face. Bingo. He pursed his lips at her grin, probably realising what he’d fallen for, before making his way up the stairs. 

Felicity looked back at her computers. Oliver was fun to tease, but it stopped there. Or so she told herself. So why did her heart flutter when he grabbed her damn elbow? Felicity heaved out a dramatic sigh and pulled up a new file on her computer. What was Unidac trying to hide?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Theories? Thanks for tuning in! Xx

**Author's Note:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed! My goal is to make these chapters longer than I usually write. Please let me know if it's too hard to read because of spelling or grammatical errors and I'll find a beta. Please leave feedback! I adore hearing from readers! Until next time Xx


End file.
